A third Path to the Future
by Vimesenthusiast
Summary: Fantastic Four entered the Negative Zone to rescue baby Franklin but they never expected him to already have been rescued by another human. This human turns out to be a wizard from another world. Worse he has been through a war, and survived in the Negative Zone for years. How will this dimensional traveler effect the marvel universe? Answer: a lot. Pairings: harem see inside
1. A Stranger in an even Stranger Land

I don't own Harry Potter, if I did it would have been Harmony all the way! Nor do I own even a single piece of the marvel universe.

Second version

* * *

**A third path to the future:**

**Chapter 1 A stranger in an even stranger land**

Susan Richards, AKA the Invisible Woman, normally one of the most level-headed and calm individuals you could ever hope to meet, was at this moment not calm at all. Instead she was irritated, angry, beside herself with worry and oscillating wildly between wanting to fall down into a sobbing wreck or grab her husband and see if she could somehow choke a rubber man. "Reed, why is this taking so long? You had this all set up before those bastards took Franklin, why is it so difficult to set up again! It's been three hours since we got home, and he's been gone for even longer!"

Those three hours had been the worst and Susan storm's life, beating out anything that had happened since the two of them, her brother and Ben Grimm had become the world's first hero team the Fantastic Four. That was because her son, Franklin Richards a healthy, happy, little baby boy had been taken from his cradle by some monster out of the Negative Zone.

Reed and Susan had gone out on an evening date while Johnny and Ben had both gone out on their own respective dates, leaving Agatha Harkness and Wyatt Wingfoot to mind the store as it were. This should have been overkill, Agatha was a witch of considerable power and Wyatt was a master marksman and hand to hand combat expert. Imagine their shock when they came home to find both of their friends unconscious and heavily injured and their baby Franklin missing from his crib. Agatha seems to have been done in by some kind of gas before collapsing and smacking her head against a shelf, while Wyatt had simply been pummeled into submission. He had woken up briefly when Johnny found him and informed them that beasts, which he described as winged green things, had come from and escaped back through Reed's workshop where the dimensional portal was housed.

Researching the Negative Zone was one of Reed's ongoing scientific projects, and to say it had been a mixed bag was putting it mildly. Apparently the Negative Zone was a universe that lay horizontal to their own, not connected to but overlying their own in strange ways, with some similarities and quite a lot of incredibly odd differences. One of which was that Reed conjectured that the Big Bang was being reversed in that universe already, and that despite the entire Negative Zone being filled with breathable air the number of actual life forms within was incredibly low. That life was there was not in doubt, just the amount.

Indeed, the Fantastic family had run afoul of one such being named Annihilus when they were searching for a cosmic control rod to negate the effect of the cosmic impulses of living energy that were interfering with Susan's pregnancy with their now kidnapped son. Who knew what else the Negative Zone held that Reed had simply not found yet.

The fact that Reed hadn't even installed any warning devices on the portal to let him know if it activated irritated Susan, but she knew that her husband was pretty much the poster child of the absent-minded professor sometimes. The time he was taking to make certain that the machine was still working was pushing it though, quite a lot.

In stark contrast to his wife's current mood Reed Richards was the epitome of phlegmatic calm. "Susan, it won't help us or Franklin if we enter the Negative Zone too far away from him to find him quickly. I need to at least roughly calculate the area where the being who took him went. Somehow the machine was used from the other side without any kind of controls in place for said, and the coordinates changed dramatically from where I had put it. Quite fascinating, really, how such a remote control could be achieved."

"Yeah well it's a pity that that fascinating discovery of yours has come with my nephew being abducted!" Johnny storm, Susan's much younger kid brother said, unconsciously turning on and off his flame power around his fists as he paced around the Baxter building's lab fifteen. "I really don't care what they want him for I'm gonna flambé them for taking Franklin."

"You said it Flame-head," said the family friend Ben Grimm. Ben had been their pilot during the accident which had given the Fantastic Four their powers but had been their friend for far longer. He was the most physically changed of them all, being unable to turn on or off his powers and having been transformed into a monstrous orange rock covered Thing, thus his codename.

"Just another couple more minutes guys, I've calculated the position, now I'm creating a tracker so we can follow whoever took our baby."

"'Whoever took'… Oh come on Reed!" Johnny exclaimed, "it's Annihilus! He's probably still got it in for us because of how we stole his cosmic control rod, even if we did return it. Hell even Wyatt's description matches those of his troops."

"Extrapolating an answer from limited data does no one any good Johnny." Reed answered. "We've only been able to map a very limited area of the negative zone, who knows what we will find as we continue to research it."

Susan growled. "We're not going to continue researching it Reed! Or are two injured friends and our missing **baby**" she emphasized "not enough to warn you it's dangerous!"

For a moment Reed looked flustered, but after a few seconds thought he answered readily. "And that is precisely why we should continue to research it, because we don't know if it can be a source of help or danger, and may I remind you all if we hadn't found and explored the negative zone to find the cosmic control rod Franklin might have died stillborn. I'll admit, however," he said after a moment "that I needed to take more precautions. I'll install a heavy security system on both the portal and to the lab itself as soon as we get back." He turned back to his devices and after a moment he said, "and done."

With a loud electrical hum the device turned on and a moment later the portal to the negative zone opened in its cradle, the three claw-like nacelles hummed and vibrated as they poured power into the portal. "I wasn't able to find the exact position where he appeared on the other side, but we are within at least two miles of it. Ben you lead off, the rest of us will follow. Remember the negative zone is practically empty of most matter as we define the term so it will be almost like being in midair, you'll need to use your rocket packs to move and our mobility and speed will be limited."

Johnny grinned flaming the full power. "You slowpokes might need those things but not this hero, later guys!" And with that he burst into flames and sped into the portal.

The Thing grunted and followed after, the seriousness of the current crisis making him unable to even come up with a witty comeback to the flame-brain. Susan and Reed followed quickly, leaving a barely mobile Wyatt behind to watch the controls.

* * *

Reed's estimate of the time it would take them to follow the trail was off by quite a bit. Slowed down by their reliance on their thrusters the fantastic foursome had been traveling through the negative zone following Reed with his scanner for what seemed like two or maybe even three hours without seeing anything of their target. It was just as Susan was about to lose her temper that they came upon a body.

It was very definitely a **body**, there is no way a person, even a being with green scales and fangs couldn't live with a large piece of what looked like granite stuck straight through their chest and out their back. Johnny, who had taken to ranging all around the slower trio and was hovering next to it waiting for them to catch up. "I think we can definitely say that it was Annihilus who took Frankie now can't we?"

Reed sighed and nodded. "Yes, his followers were a part of this. Pity I thought he was a more cautious sort. Trying to attack us like this doesn't seem his style." _Unless what he had to gain overrode his caution_ Reed mused. "I wonder if Annihilus himself is as well. With his cosmic control rod he is a formidable threat."

"Quit your jawing and let's get moving." The Thing grunted. "If we have to throw down with Annihilus because of this, then he'll learn what 'clobberin' time' really means!"

Susan forged ahead silently, wondering what the death of the creature meant for her Franklin.

* * *

It was another hour and the debris field had started to close up, giving them more camouflage against prying eyes but slowing them down. About 15 to 20 minutes later, it was hard to tell in the Negative Zone, the four began to hear the mutter of voices ahead of them, or at least a voice. The voice was speaking oddly enough, in a clipped British accent, and the foursome paused as the words became intelligible, struck dumb by the incongruence of such a strangely soothing and normal sound against the backdrop of the Negative Zone.

"And that's the last of them little mate. I wonder what old green skin wants with you so bad to send out so many of his troops against **me** of all people. I thought I'd bloody well taught him better than that! Oh, well needs must."

The next noise they heard was a happy baby gurgle, again a strange sound against the backdrop all around them, but this time it sparked a movement from all four. Susan took the lead despite her husband trying to grab her, shooting around the asteroid they had been hiding behind. The sight that greeted her was so wonderful she almost cried.

Standing on top of an oddly shaped rock formation hanging in the middle of a floating field of broken bodies and debris was a young man dressed in a black body suit from the neck down with bright, almost luminous green eyes and wild black hair. One hand was loose at his side while the other was waggling his fingers at the object that held her attention. Her baby Franklin was laying on his head and the baby was cooing and pulling at the young man's hair. From where she was moving towards them she couldn't even see a single mark on Franklin and frantic relief stopped her throat for a moment and she simply jetted forward, with the others after her.

The boy hadn't noticed their presence yet still speaking to the baby on his head. "And can I say again what a wonderful presence you've been in my life for the past week. It was such a bore not having an audience that would appreciate my sense of humor and technique. Though if I didn't know the spells to dispose of waste it would be a different story and we'd be having a much different conversation little mate."

The baby noticed the approaching foursome first and started cooing and waving his fat little hands frantically from his perch. The young man looked around as Susan finally got control of her voice and shouted "my baby, Franky you're all right!"

The man's eyes widened momentarily and then he smirked a little. "Well I have to say I didn't expect anyone to be able to come after the little tyke. You must be his mother, Madame." And he bowed in a slightly formal manner towards the blonde woman, not bothering to remove the baby from his head as he seemed to be stuck there by some force. As she came closer he took a moment to assess her, and very purposefully bit his tongue. In his opinion she was a MILF but he wasn't going to comment on it out loud. Even after five years alone in this place he had slightly more sense than that. Not a lot more sense, but some. _Now if she turns out not to be married to any of the blokes behind her that'll be a different story._

As Susan came forward the young man undid whatever was holding Franklin in place on his head then held out the baby to her whereupon she grasped Franklin and pulled him to her in a grateful embrace. The other three came forward as Susan started to ignore her surroundings to check on her baby and just generally cuddle with him in relief, with the baby responding enthusiastically in return apparently none the worse for his adventure.

Reed took a moment to take in what had obviously been a battlefield not too long ago. There seemed to be fifteen of Annihilus's followers and he used the word with feeling, **scattered** around, he could literally not tell how many of them there had been originally, there were far too many pieces. A few seemed to have been somehow converted to other things, somehow transfigured from living to unloving matter. The outcrop of spinning rock that the young man was standing on seemed to be one such. Some of them had been turned to glass then shattered others had been impaled or simply exploded. One oddly enough looked as if it had been dressed in a clown outfit then crucified onto another that had been transformed into wood and forced into a crucifix shape. He wondered what kind of ability the young man had that could have done all this. _Perhaps he is a mutant like Xavier or some of the others we have met in the past two years. I wonder how he arrived in the Negative Zone?_

The young man looked at the trio and his smirk if anything widened after taking in their odd appearance, showing little to no surprise at any of them. "If you don't mind me saying so I think I'll let you" he pointed at Ben "take out the next group that shows up old boy. They're a bit more in your weight class than mine and I could do with a break."

Ben grinned, liking this kid already. "Sure thing. Thanks fer finding and looking after our little guy there."

"I'll help," Johnny said a little miffed that his own appearance didn't cause some kind of reaction from the other young man, he was, y'know, on fire after all! In fact, the other man looked so calm and accepting of their appearance that it was a little weird.

"And if I ever need to start a fire, I'll know where to go" the green eyed man said, waving his fingers a little. Johnny looks down at himself and realized that he wasn't on fire anymore, and he floundered in midair having lost all propulsion. "What did"

"Just a little flame freeze charm my friend. After all," he said sententiously "secondhand smoke is bad for babies." Johnny growled a little and the green eyed man shrugged. "Sorry mate, but I've got a thing against blond pretty boys and unfortunately you look like their poster child. This will be the first of many pranks I warn you."

Ben broke out into loud guffaws as Susan recovered enough of her presence to join Reed in thanking the young man. He simply smiled and held up a hand. "No thanks necessary, after all I didn't think he was one of them when I saw Annihilus' boys carting him off, wrong color and species for that. Besides, he's been quite the pleasant company for the past week. After five years trapped in this zone it's become a bit boring, don't you know."

"Five years!" Susan gasped then paused "A week! It's only been a few hours, maximum of twelve, since he was taken!"

The young man and Reed answered at the same time "time moves differently in the negative zone." Then they looked at each other and the young man grinned. "I don't suppose I could catch a lift to the old sandbox can I? And how did you lot get in here anyway?"

"The portal is one of my inventions, and I've been researching the negative zone for some time, though I'm sorry to say I never saw evidence there was a human trapped here." Reed replied.

"Portal and you said the heathen word 'research'," the black haired man mused, "so that means you're not wizards. Don't suppose I could ask you to give me the year and the date could I?"

"It's the year 19**. We came through from San Francisco where the Baxter Building our home is located." Susan answered. "But what do you mean when you say wizards?" Agatha was a witch and they knew about magic, but she didn't use any spells that could account for the variety of wreckage around them.

"I should've expected you were Yanks by your accents. And as for magic, that's how I got here, and trust me where I'm from I could count the number of magic users on one hand that knew what the scientific method was. I suppose you could call me a victim of a dishonest government and the media it controlled. There was a civil war and I decided to 'gasp' actually fight it rather than simply assume that the corrupt government that the narcissistic bigots I was fighting controlled would actually put prosecute them after they were caught."

"But after the big baddy was put down the bloody bastards in power decided they had no need of me. Before they could decide to have me killed in any of the esoteric ways they had access to I decided to take a leap of faith and go through what they called the veil of Death. But either it wasn't that way for me personally, which wouldn't be the first time I've broken the rules of magic, they're not so much rules you understand as guidelines, or they were just wrong, wouldn't be the first time for that either."

As Reed was wondering about their new acquaintances psychological state Susan suddenly brought her hand up to her mouth "oh, I'm sorry we haven't even introduced ourselves. This is Franklin, who you've already met obviously. I'm Susan, this is my husband Reed, that is our friend Ben and my brother Johnny. And yes, I'm sure we can give you a lift back to Earth. Though I have to say that what you're describing doesn't sound at all familiar."

"Yes, well, it probably wouldn't. The odds of you coming from the same Earth I'm from are…." the boy looked to the distance for a moment as he tried to calculate the odds.

Reed beat him to the punch however by simply stating "1 to the 10,000 percentile. The negative zone interacts with and overlaps nearly all 'real' realities. You're probably just from one of the others, which means that whatever crimes you committed, they wouldn't have any impact on your living on our Earth. You will have to explain those in depth later, If not to us then to Agatha Harkness, she's our nanny for Franklin and a sorceress, so she knows about magical things."

"An excellent thought" the man said "Oh, you asked who I am. My name's Harry Potter, formerly known as the 'destined one' by people whose brains were much smaller than a bread box. Pleased to meet you."

* * *

Warning, **Prepare for an Info dump! **Those who don't care about Harry's background need not read – fandom clichés galore

From the moment he returned to it Harry Potter was never what anyone in the wizarding world expected him to be, but it was thought by those that survived the Civil War and had known him at all that it was Hermione Granger's death that truly threw him round the twist.

From the beginning he was not what anyone anticipated him to be, a brave dauntless Gryffindor or even a loyal Hufflepuff, savior of the light. For one thing, Harry was intelligent, as in **very** intelligent. After he had made an agreement with the teachers to never share his grades with his relatives, who did not need another reason to hate him (they could made up reasons all on their own thank you very much) he routinely scored in the upper one percentile in the nation on every test he took in school. It was only the need for parental permission that stopped him from skipping several grades, but this did not stop him learning.

Harry spent as much time as possible in the library learning and as such was known as the brightest kid in the school by every teacher that taught him, but the secret was well kept from his relatives. It almost became like a conspiracy of silence in direct retaliation to what the teachers assumed was a conspiracy somewhere else. A few of the teachers had previously tried to help young Harry when they noticed fresh bruises and other marks on his body when he moved around. Some of them had even noticed how underfed he always looked. They soon found however that for some reason something or other was protecting his relatives from prosecution.

One of the teachers in fact had gone to two different social workers, and found out later that both had been moved to different districts. The teacher himself would have forgotten about the entire thing if he hadn't found his notes on the abuse he had made over the school year on his computer. Another civil worker had it much worse however and it was what happened to Mr. Palancy that really told Harry someone was out to keep him down.

Mr. Palancy was a civil worker who lived in the area and he tried several dozen times to do something about Harry. He would start and even sometimes get Harry away from his relatives for a short time then something would happen, and he would be left with nothing but his computerized notes of the events. As he kept on trying the memory loss grew worse, and he was driven slowly insane.

Harry would later learn that this was done by Albus Dumbledore, because he felt that the protection that living with his blood relative gave the young boy was worth any price. Harry disagreed at the time he found out, he disagreed most vehemently.

So, Harry came into the wizarding world knowing not only that he had an enemy out there that was using magic, but also about magic itself. After all, you can only spend so much time in a library until you figure out that the strange occurrences happening around you all the time (bones healing in a night, cuts healing a little faster, living through having your head smashed by a frying pan, and teleporting away from your cousin when he's playing his favorite game of very hunting with his mates) before you realize that what is happening is magical.

From there it was a small step to trying to control what he could do with magic. Two years and more of controlling his magic and researching the effects had an effect, and later he was almost always able to perform spells wandless after a bit of practice.

But more than his magical ability what really changed him was his relationship with the local librarian and those teachers who were in the know about what was going on. His teachers became his friends, the librarian his confidant, and his intelligence their secret pleasure to cultivate. The events on the Hogwarts express showed the wizarding world the mind that Harry had thus developed.

Harry knew of Hermione from their scholastic records, they routinely fought over the first position score in their grades in the country. Thankfully it was a friendly competition, and their recently begun correspondence had hinted that they would be meeting at Hogwarts, though of course neither of them had come out and said it. Their "So what **is **magic" conversation, however, showed how analytical their minds were and eventually dragged in several dozen Ravenclaws who overheard their discussion.

One Ronald Weasley and one Draco Malfoy attempted to enter their compartment intending to become friends or otherwise influence Harry Potter only to be scared away by some of the words the two were exchanging such as 'mass exchange' 'energy to matter and matter to matter conversion' and 'conservation' of said as well as 'atoms' and 'quantum'. When quantum is mentioned most people run for the hills.

Their conversation continued all the way up until Hermione had to put on the hat and with it still in her mind there was no way in hell the hat would put her anywhere but in Ravenclaw. Hermione was a little disappointed by this hoping to have gone into the same house as Dumbledore, but her disappointment didn't last long as Harry was sorted in with her.

Thus the plans of Albus Dumbledore and Voldermort were both thrown for a loop. They were not faced with an adventurous, courageous and above all headstrong Gryffindor, they were faced with an affable, incredibly intelligent, inquisitive and very determined young man who knew that he could not trust **anyone** in authority in the magic world until he figured out who his enemies were.

When classes began both Harry and Hermione were disappointed at the speed the classes were supposed to go. After all both mastered the spells involved in the classroom within 10 minutes of being allowed to attempt them, and thus thought that others should be able to master them that quickly. Helping their fellows became second nature and their rewards in points would make Ravenclaw the winner of the house cup the next three years.

Harry also took it upon himself to keep a record of every use of power, malicious insult, and bullying that any student or teacher did in his time in his first year there. Over that summer this list, anonymously sent out to parents and to the Wizarding Examinations Authority forced Albus Dumbledore to use a lot of his political capital with the light aligned families to keep Severus Snape as a teacher, and drove an even larger wedge between him and the neutrals. By all rights the evidence Harry had collected, including written testimonies from some of the upper years as well as his own year from every house save Slytherin, should've gotten Severus Snape put in jail for child abuse/endangerment, but that would not serve Albus Dumbledore's purpose and so could not be allowed.

The year's disappointments for Albus did not stop with Harry being sorted into Ravenclaw. The invisibility cloak he'd hoped to use to keep track of the boy via the tracking charm you based with extreme difficulty on it sat unused in the boy's specially created library trunk for as long as Harry was in school. At least it sat there as far as he knew, because in his third year Harry learned how to move the tracking spell and put it on a book in his library, enabling him to use the cloak to his advantage. But that would happen later.

That first year there were no adventures no Griffindor charging forward, only slow, methodical gathering of information and knowledge, as Harry began to build up his knowledge base of the magical world in order to find out who had placed him with people who wanted him dead or at best broken, which would have succeeded were it not for his teachers and the public librarian. There was a troll incident, but it occurred to other students, not Harry or Hermione, who were sitting silent vigil for his parents in the Ravenclaw dorms. Thus Albus was forced to fight Voldemort himself, who had no way of knowing of the power that Harry still possessed.

It was in second year, a year filled with Dobby created danger, as Harry had joined the Quidditch team making him an easy target for Dobby's ill conceived plans to get him to leave Hogwarts, when the rest of the school realized that Harry really was different from anything that they are expected. When Gilderoy Lockhart who, despite Harry, Hermione and several other Ravenclaws (mostly boys admittedly) finding disconcerting evidence of fabrication in his stories was still a teacher, hosted a dueling completion things got out of hand. A snake was summoned by Draco Malfoy which then tried to bite a nearby student. Harry, who honestly had come to laugh at everyone else, saved the boy by speaking to the snake in parseltongue. This immediately caused him to be labeled Dark (whatever the hell that was, Harry did not like generalities, and he liked oversimplification even less) by more than half the school.

Later he was accused to his face of being the much thought of and feared Heir of Slytherin, who had used his 'fell powers' to assault Mr. Flitch and his cat. In Harry's opinion this was simply the removal of one bully from the school. There were still several that had to be removed to make it an actual school rather than a giant sociological experiment run by the man in the disturbing robes.

In point of fact he had attempted to go to a different school of magic over the summer, but as one was known for teaching only purebloods (and he wasn't leaving Hermione behind), another was in North America and he couldn't get a passport, and the third was French he had unfortunately been forced to continue attending Hogwarts. His campaign to have Severus Snape removed as a teacher however, had produced a result; he no longer personally had to take classes with him but that didn't bother the rest of the sheep of the school so much as when he laughed at them when some of them called him the Heir of Slytherin.

It wasn't a malicious laugh or a laugh of contempt it was simply a full blown belly laugh, like they had said the funniest or stupidest thing he'd ever heard. When he recovered himself enough to respond he simply pointed and said "this is my best friend. Perhaps you haven't noticed." Hermione Granger blushed at the attention, but grinned at the sentiment as well as the faces of the onlookers. "Who. Is. A. Muggleborn" he said slowly and succinctly and when no one responded he walked off with Hermione still laughing leaving the rest of the school feeling rather silly about the whole affair.

Harry however, did notice that none of the teachers had even attempted to quell the rumors or control it in the first place. That put another checkmark alongside his 'don't trust anybody in power' rule, as did the school remaining open when she and several others were found petrified outside the library weeks later. It would take him days of joining her still form in a silent vigil to notice the small scrap of paper in her head, something that he later castigated himself over most severely.

When the Heir of Slytherin struck again, dragging Ginny Weasley a Griffindor (though for some reason that had angered her a lot when she was sorted) into the Chamber of Secrets the school learned that Harry also had quite a bit of courage. Why else would he attempt to fight a 50 meter long basilisk armed only with his wand and sword rather than go and tell the teachers? Of course he didn't trust the teachers **at** **all **at this point, not even professors Flitwick or McGonagall, who had gone out of their way to help Harry and Hermione in their studies of advanced magic along. (It could also have been because he thought the heir would have put up a ward against anyone who couldn't speak parseltongue, that was what he would have done after all.)

A normal second year student could never have defeated a basilisk whatever he was armed with. Harry however, was very intelligent with a very good knowledge of spells and chemistry. Studying chemistry and mechanics were his dreams for the future, magic had really quite lost its luster for him, and Hermione wanted to be a physic's major with a minor in engineering.

Therefore he entered armed with one wand and one homemade hand grenade, made by careful transfiguration and several kitchen ingredients he'd asked the house elves for. However, once the beast appeared after the obligatory boasting the hand grenade didn't do much other than blind the beast, but that enabled him enough time to reach the sorting hat, dropped by a helpful Fawkes who then finished off the basilisks eyes, and pull out the sort of Gryffindor which he had known was in there since talking to the hat at his sorting. The heir of Gryffindor after all should know where his sword was, especially if he already had an enemy to hunt down. The beast could still smell him however and Harry had never made a study of snakes. The beast charged forward and even though he dodged bit him in the arm but Harry retaliated at the same time, plunging the sword of Gryffindor into the snake's mouth and thence into its brain box.

Harry collapsed from the pain but during the gloating Harry simply conjured the cursed diary to him and stabbed it with the sword, which had absorbed the poison from the basilisk's mouth making it one of the deadliest weapons in the world. On a whim he also cast a spell he had read about in a book in the library, Praedia Bellica. Despite it being used on a spirit, it worked, and the shades magical power and spell knowledge became his. He now knew the man who killed his parents was still alive, and more about the process than he really wanted to know. It would take him months to sort through all the memories and realize this however.

A few Phoenix tears later, and he was well enough to levitate Ginny into the air and carry her thence out of the chamber of secrets. He rebuffed all offers of aid simply pointing back over his shoulder where the chamber of secrets lay open for all to see, wanting everyone to know what the danger had been and that it was over. Albus Dumbledore later attempted to control the rumors, but in the end Harry was lauded as a savior by nearly everyone in the magical world and the teachers all came under close scrutiny for not having solved the problem or even found out what it was. Albus himself was saved from this by fortuitously being away from the school thanks to Malfoy Sr.'s machinations. It took him the entire summer to get things back to normal.

Third year was little better from the so-called 'leader of light's' position. First Harry Potter rebuffed all attempts from Remus Lupin to get close to him, citing that any person who would've abandoned the child of his best friend regardless of extenuating circumstances was not someone he wanted in his life. Harry was very much a one strike you're out sort of person, at least with adults. He tended to be more lenient with people who in his opinion were immature and thus could still learn from their mistakes. Not even offering to help Harry learn the Patronus spell helped, as Harry and Hermione had already learned it after encountering the dementors on the train.

He knew about Remus from a certain large black dog he had befriended after it had scared off his cousin when he and his crew was out 'Harry hunting'. This and the trust it built for the man in that form allowed him to befriend Serious Black before school even began, and between the two of them they were able to oust Peter Pettigrew without Remus Lupin's involvement at all. Severus Snape, in what would be his final act as a Hogwarts teacher burst in on the scene in the empty classroom to, in his own words 'save the idiotic Gryffindor Ravenclaw' from his own stupidity'.

The fact that this allowed Peter Pettigrew to escape was a final draw for Harry and this time he went straight to Madam Bones of the DMLE and the Daily Prophet with everything he had collected about Severus Snape and the other bullies at Hogwarts. Severus Snape was soon not only canned but in jail despite Dumbledore's best efforts to save his spy.

The point he had made about Severus purposefully failing anyone outside of Slytherin who wanted to pass the potions NEWT, which was a prerequisite of becoming an Auror had been the deciding factor. Even Fudge, as spineless a politico as there ever was, would not budge on his removal after that came out. After all, corrupt the Ministry may be, but it still needed a police force.

Amidst this circus Remus Lupin proved Harry right not to trust him by slinking back away when the Prophet, doing an expose on Hogwarts, revealed him to be a werewolf, making no attempt to reconcile with him. This act of cowardice forever ended any chance of reconciliation between the Marauders.

Next year worked out much more satisfactorily for all the key players but Harry. Despite not even being in the hall when the goblet was lit Harry was chosen as a champion (if you must know he was making out with Hermione, the girl having just agreed to be his girlfriend). To say he was miffed at having his plans for a normal year disrupted is an understatement. His swift and public denouncement of his placement in the tournament along with the magical oath proving his innocence kept most of the sheeple on his side however.

The contests continued apace, and Moody was oddly helpful year round, something that made Harry distrust him all the more. Harry did not go out of his way to rub his superiority in his opponent's nose, having gotten to know Fluer and the others and not wanting to let anyone know that his studies in all types of magic had continued at an even faster clip with Sirius's assistance (Sirius was by this point living in a specially warded trunk that connected to Harry's library trunk and to Potterstead, the ancestral home of the Potters. It had taken Harry, Sirius and Hermione weeks to make). At this point Harry confided in Sirius and Hermione what he had found out from Riddle's shade in second year, and Sirius explained what a horcrux was and how to detect them and more importantly destroy them. The Black library was quite extensive when it came to Dark Arts. While the kids were in school he returned to his ancestral home and to his shock found a horcrux there, possessed by the elf Kreacher. A visit to an empty lot and a barely controlled fiendfyre spell later, Riddle was down a second horcrux.

During the last event Cedric offered to share the cup with Harry. He was touched and agreed, which led to Cedric's death and Voldemort's resurrection. That Harry was able to capture Peter Pettigrew and escape thanks to a flash bang and specially ensorcelled contact lenses was no consolation. Harry didn't even bother trying to get anyone to believe Riddle was back, merely saying they had been ambushed by someone who wanted to restart Voldemort's war. Dumbledore tried to get him to say that it was Voldemort, but he refused, citing the panic of Fudge at what he had already said.

The fact that everyone from Dumbledore on down wanted to question him about what happened but that he wasn't even offered counseling for witnessing his friend's death further hardened Harry and Hermione's views of the wizarding world.

It was during that summer however, that both Dumbledore and Voldemort would make their most serious mistake.

Through all of his studies and adventures Hermione Granger had been Harry's constant companion. Indeed, throughout their time in Hogwarts the teachers who knew his parents looked upon the pair with smiles and growing delight at what they saw as the new James and Lily as their friendship blossomed into romance. Together they broke down house barriers as easily as scholastic records, and were very, very dangerous. This was why she was targeted by Voldemort, who wanted to send a message to Harry that he may have snatched a small victory from defeat but he was still vulnerable in other ways.

It is also why Albus Dumbledore, warned ahead of time by his newly freed spy Severus Snape, that the assault was going to occur allowed it to go forward without any defense. He had no control on Harry because of his seeming happiness with his family life, nor could Dumbledore see what the boy was thinking. Harry had learned an odd mode of occlumency, which was simply organizing his brain into a library trunk like the one he owned then covering it with a mental invisibility cloak. Dumbledore couldn't even find his mind let alone see inside it, and looking into Hermione's mind was even worse as she had used the image of a computer and computer files to organize her mind.

Dumbledore needed a handle on Harry and without Hermione's support, who was just a mudblood when all was said, he hoped the boy would turn to him, who Harry had always been respectful but not subservient to. Thus it was that mere days into the summer before what would have been their fifth year Hermione Granger died at the hands of Draco Malfoy, new inductee of the Death Eaters, and Severus Snape, who had previously enjoyed himself with her imperiused mother.

It was after this traumatic event got back to him, and after he stopped grieving, that Harry Potter decided that if no one else was going to play by the rules that he sure as hell wasn't either. The first thing he did was get in touch with his friends, informing them of what had happened and asking them to meet him in mundane London. His group was quite eclectic, but very close knit. They included Neville Longbottom, the Weasley twins, Daphne Greengrass and her girlfriend Tracy Davis as well as her cover wizard Blaize who was actually engaged to a witch in Italy, the Patil sisters and the most quirky blonde to ever attend Hogwarts, Luna Lovegood. He informed them of what happened, that Voldemort was back and what happened to Hermione. He told them that he was going to take the fight to him in as many ways as possible. They asked where they could sign up.

Sirius Black, who thanks to Peter Pettigrew's Veritaserum induced confession was cleared of all charges, had a title of nobility in the mundane world and used it to get a audience with the Queen, who was, despite never using her power, was technically still the head of the magical government. After that meeting he and his godson's friends received all the help they wanted in the way to training. The new Marauders received training in tactics and strategy by squibs who had gone into the military, SAS specialists who taught them how to use guns, knives and other weapons. After two months training they were ready. Harry proved a master at it, his defense against the dark arts grades had been excellent as had his transformation, and he had kept in shape his entire life. The others had some problems, but not many. Learning all this and preparing a few creations he and Hermione had thought up using runes and mundane inventions took some time to prepare but after six weeks of training they were ready.

One of their first missions was the capture of Severus Snape, who would be their only prisoner, to be used at a later date against his masters. The group, wearing mundane Halloween masks of different creatures targeted several other death eaters who had recently escaped from Azkaban, including Sirius's own cousin and her husband when they went back to the Lestrange manor. The news of this vigilante group taking down escaped prisoners with lethal force spread, and garnered mixed reviews.

Dumbledore for one began a public campaign against the group that stated they were dark, and it was merely a power struggle between two Dark groups. As he had no evidence that Harry, still technically living with the Dursleys, it was a general attack on the group.

Harry publicly responded in the Daily Prophet via a note that had been in ensorcelled to be unchangeable and would self-destruct if they attempted to tamper with it. The manager of the Daily Prophet deciding that the boost in sales was worth it ran it despite the fact that it basically ripped apart Albus Dumbledore and the greater good.

"Justice" Harry said, in his persona of the Falcon, the leader of the New Marauders "is blind but it is neither kind nor forgiving of all sins. If one does wrong and is sorry for it that is one thing, but if one does wrong and is forgiven without feeling sorrow or showing regret that is not justice. You are merely enabling the perpetrator to continue his or her crimes." Unfortunately Harry's point was not well received by the majority of people who thought that Albus Dumbledore could walk on water. Worse, it was not well thought of by the Ministry in general, who knew they were corrupt and didn't care. From its inception the ministry had been corrupt, made to only serve the interests of those already in power and very little had changed since.

Voldemort, still desiring anonymity for now, used a pack of werewolves and a few expendable death eaters on several attacks on key targets. Madam Bones died with her niece in an assault on their manor, leaving the corrupt Fudge unchallenged in the ministry. Other families, mostly muggleborn or halfbloods were also targeted. Harry and his group did what they could but could only be in one place at a time, not wanting to split their group up in case of trouble. Dumbledore's group always arrived too late to help, damaging his standing with the muggleborns, and this began an exodus of said group from the magical world that continued for several years. No one in power cared though, and it went unremarked as Fudge's propaganda machine shut down any mention of the attacks, stifling Dumbledore who wanted people to realize that Voldemort was back.

Harry and his group responded to these attacks by taking out the entire Malfoy family and casting Praedia Bellica while doing so. Harry and Sirius attacked them when they went to Gringott's for a meeting dealing with the Black gold, while the rest of the New Marauders kept the aurors busy. Harry had avenged his lady, then spent the rest of the day getting drunk and remembering the good times they had.

Next Harry tried again to destroy Dumbledore's public support by walking into the Wizarding wireless tower and interviewing via veritaserum the bound Severus Snape about his involvement with in Hermione's death, the Death Eaters and Dumbledore. It was at that point that Harry was forced to flee from arriving aurors under Minster Fudge's orders to arrest him. It was enough however to get Dumbledore removed from Hogwarts as well as Head of the Wizengamot. With Dumbledore gone, Fudge worked to quell and contain the panic, saying that Harry was wrong, that it was only someone pretending to be Voldemort. The purebloods despite the evidence to the contrary believed him. The muggleborns and halfbloods however began to flee the magical world in droves.

Despite having no evidence, Dumbledore became convinced at this point that Harry was somehow involved and determined to get some answers he tried the direct approach, attacking Harry near the library that had become his home after his first year (no way was Harry going to stay with the Dursleys any longer than he had to, but he still needed to be in the area so Dumbledore didn't realize he wasn't). When he did he ran into something Hermione and Harry had devised, a high tech polymer and Kevlar bodysuit that was enhanced by runic protections and various magically powered enhancements. When he tried to stun Harry to transport him somewhere else the spell did nothing but alert Harry to his presence. Astonished at the failure of his assault Dumbledore didn't even try to dodge Harry's attack, and thus Harry acquired an extra wand. He left Dumbledore there to be arrested later for loitering.

A few days later Snape died in prison, tortured to death by a fellow death Eater for betraying his master's secrets.

Despite all this Harry and his group was forced by magically enforced law to go back to Hogwarts, and they decided to go along to keep their anonymity for a few months longer. Thankfully with Dumbledore and Snape no longer there it was a far better school with McGonagall as head mistress, even with several suspected Death Eaters among the students there.

Harry devoted himself to his studies once more, but his friends wouldn't let him disappear into his books. Daphne Greengrass, who had become Hermione's best female friend and academic rival, was determined to make Harry remember there was more to life than fighting, and dragged Harry into the social life of Hogwarts. She pushed him to date and hang out with his friends rather than brood and study. His other friends, Luna Lovegood, Neville Longbottom and Padma Patil joined in the effort wholeheartedly.

All of them pointed out to him that Hermione would want him to move on with his life, and dating was a part of that. It helped that he was among the most fanciable boys in the school, and that both Padma and Luna wanted to see what would happen if they dated him. The result was that Harry changed from a broody dangerous boy back to his somewhat normal self, with the addition of hormones. Harry had a lot of fun and a lot of kisses and dates for a few months while Sirius and his one remaining cousin and her family spent their time battling with Gringott's lawyers, eventually getting access to the Lestrange vault, where they found and destroyed another horcrux.

A few months later Harry found a convenient room for his dates that the elves called the Come and Go room. Any room he or his current date wanted, it could create. Imagine his surprise when he found a room with countless old magical objects for him to study. When he came upon a diadem that made his scar hurt however, he knew what to do. He called for the sword of Gryffindor and slashed the thing in two.

The only hiccup to Harry's first two semesters back at Hogwarts came when someone tried to poison him (Pansy Parkinson, a true Slytherin used an imperioused Hufflepuff first year to poison Harry's food to avenge her Drakky). They in fact succeeded and Harry died, for a given value of died. Thanks to the horcrux in his scar he was stuck in limbo and there given a choice. He was able to see Hermione, who told him to move on with his life and to live for both of them, and 'by Morgana Harry Potter, find something to do with your life that doesn't involve fighting!' After this Harry felt his magical power quadruple as the limiters Dumbledore placed on him as a baby faded upon his 'death'. Harry was now one of the most powerful wizards on the planet, though he didn't advertise the fact.

Unfortunately the war continued despite the government's continued assurance that it wasn't actually happening. With the ministry so incompetent Voldemort decided to go after his other enemies, and the order of the plucked chicken began to die. Dumbledore, having been badly cursed when he destroyed one horcrux, without the elder wand and outside the protection of Hogwarts was easy meat for Riddle.

Riddle after that began his campaign of terror anew, and with the ministry desperate to cover it up nothing was done to fight back, leaving Harry and his friends to once more take to the field. Unfortunately Riddle was expecting them. When the group responded to an attack on Hogsmead they were ambushed with nearly all of Riddle's forces, his wizards, giants, and werewolves. The dementors were elsewhere, sowing terror among the muggles, who had no defense against their aura.

The battle was fierce, violent and deadly for both sides, neither one taking prisoners, but with Harry having taught them all tactics and teamwork, his side was slowly able to retreat until Riddle did the unthinkable.

This ambush had been an all or nothing gamble, with Voldemort out in the open for the first time, and wanting to sow the most terror he could, so that he could then take over without a fight. But if his enemies escaped he would be seen as fallible, as something others could fight. Seeing Harry and his friends retreating in good order out of the anti-apparition zone he had placed around the town and knowing he had to end them now before they could rally the rest of the magical world against him he did what no other Dark Lord had ever done.

Slaying two nearby students he pulled their dead bodies to him and used their blood in a ritual to open a gateway to the demon realm. Demons poured out and began to rip into the new Marauders from behind. Harry aghast watched as his friends and teachers died around him, and something inside him snapped. He began to attack the demons not with spells but raw magic, forcing them back, slaying and killing demon and enemy alike as he came. He never even noticed when one of his magic bolts struck and slew Voldemort at last, his snake Nagini having been killed by Sirius earlier in the battle.

He continued to fight until the demons Voldemort summoned all lay dead or had retreated screaming back into the portal, closing it behind them. Harry stood alone on a battlefield with the dead and the dying. Not one of his friends lived through the demon assault, yet around him the townsfolk who had hidden themselves as the fight began came out of hiding, awestruck at the carnage. Some of them even began to clap or cheer, but Harry's glare, seen clearly now as his mask had been sliced off his face during the battle, stopped them.

Harry then went about caring for the dead and preparing them for burial, or cremation if there wasn't enough left. This broke him inside, and once his grisly task was accomplished, Harry went to the headmaster's tower intending to throw himself from the window, his will to live gone with his friends. One thing stopped him the sight of Fawkes waiting for him in full splendor bearing a ring. Wearily he put it on and Fawkes alighted to his shoulder. Somehow understanding what the bird wanted, Harry poured his power into the ring, and was astonished to see the ghosts of all his departed friend appear before him. None of them wanted him to join him just yet, and all of them wanted him to find a new life for himself. When he replied he couldn't stay here, they replied that in that case he should find someplace else to go.

It took him several weeks to recover enough to think of anything but joining his friends, yet with their remonstrance's ringing in his hears that was no longer an option. Yet Harry knew that no matter where he went in either the muggle or wizarding world he would never be left alone. In the time it took him to recover the 'Daily Propaganda' had quickly gone to work, saying that the battle hadn't been between a light group and a Dark, but between two Dark forces because of the deaths both sides had caused. The ministry could not allow for someone as powerful as he was to not be under their control and the public, which feared the cure as much as the disease, called for his exile or incarceration. There were numerous calls for the Dark Lord Potter to be arrested already, and they would only grow once the purebloods in power learned how powerful he was magically and monetarily thanks to taking over the Black and Malfoy fortunes.

Harry then decided to leave it to chance, whether he would go to some other world or dimension or die. He had heard of the Veil of Death hidden in the ministry, and read a treatise by one of ancestors that said the Veil might not be to the land of death but a doorway to another dimension. Harry decided that that would be what would decide his fate, but he would prepare as if anything could happen. It took him months to prepare, and his sixteenth birthday came and went as he did. He went through all his family heirlooms and decided which he wanted to take. He took a month to gather potions and other supplies. He then took all of his family's gold from Gringotts and all of his books, all of his notes on runes and wards and placed it all in a storage trunk (his library trunk having been destroyed in his pocket saving him from a magical blast in the last battle) which he shrunk and put it in a pocket inside his body armor ensorcelled to have a permanent notice-me-not aura.

He then tried to say goodbye to Hedwig, but she was having none of it. She would follow her human come what may, and Harry didn't have the heart to try and leave her or knock her out, which he'd have to do if he tried to leave her. Defeated he allowed her to sit on his shoulder and they were off.

Harry then walked calmly into the Ministry. With his special suit repaired and his defenses on full power they couldn't do anything to stop him and soon a huge crowd gathered, following him around as he descended into the Department of Mysteries. Some still tried to stop him, but his defenses ate their spells and he simply walked on. The crowd halted in the room which held the Veil and looked on awed as Harry, not even stopping walked up to it. He stared into it for a moment then turned and looked at everyone who had gathered around to watch him. He looked at their faces, at their fear of him and shook his head, then without a word walked through.

Harry didn't really know whether to be disappointed when he found himself floating in a strange dimension with red light and nothing around him rather than dead, but it was a surprise. Having nothing better to do he started to explore.

For the next five years he traversed the negative zone, always trying to find out where he was but other than that he wandered aimlessly. His magic sustained him, renewing his body without the need of food, which was a good thing as nothing in the universe he found himself in was edible. He began to make a name for himself with his odd powers and combative nature. The denizens of the realm soon learned to flee at the sight of him either because of his power, his pranks or his attitude to what they considered rational practice (the strong controlling the weak).

Being unable to communicate with any of the inhabitants he began to talk to himself and the isolation drove him slowly but surely insane, until a flight of Annihilius's soldiers passed by his temporary hiding place carrying a little human baby. The baby and talking to said baby started to bring him back to sanity, though he wasn't quite all there yet when the baby's family showed up to rescue him.

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**End chapter**

**Author's Notes:**

As you can see from the above I went with manipulative pureblood approving Dumbledore, as well as evil Snape, and very evil Voldemort, though in the end it was the government's corruption that really was the most to blame for both Harry's predicament and how badly the war went for so long. Don't ask for me to bulk this out more, as with most of my prologues they are short because I want to get to the good stuff. Harry has had five years to get over what happened and has moved on somewhat, though not entirely. It still haunts him from time to time, but he'll be mostly 'normal' emotionally.

Writing that portion was tortuous, so don't ask me to go back and add more. The point of it was to give a outline of Harry's personality and what shaped it, not to have it be a major part of the story. JKR's realm will not be effecting the story from here on.

If you are looking for accuracy in regards to the marvel universe go elsewhere, as I have literally forgotten most of what I once knew about the universe's first ten plus years and I haven't read any of it since the civil war began (_f*&k if I wanted dark shit I'd watch the news_) . For example the only mission from the original x-men comic I can remember is the one with Mimic in it. To that end I will be setting out to merge fantastic four with x-men evolution (which I can remember ), avengers, the movie series (not the x-men movies thought) x-calibur and others.

As this is a harem there will be clichés: Powerful Harry, Genius! Harry, magical power = sexual stamina (I've seen this so often it's become normal) oh and slightly insane Harry at first, well not insane really just, he won't be able to control his mouth so well and will have some moods swings that could worry people and will be slightly off the wall in what he says and does.

The pairings will be:

Definite: Harry/Jean Grey/Ororo(yes the same age as in evolution)/Emma Frost/Betsy Braddock/Amara

Possible: Sif maybe and one metahuman haven't decided yet and maybe some others though beyond the above I'd have to be convinced to add more mutant girls, need some variety after all.


	2. A Step Heard Round the Universe

I don't own Harry Potter (it would have been Harmony all the way) or Marvel (way too many things to change if i did own it) Ok, so here is the second chapter of my Harry X Marvel crossover. Some differences I have put in – Baxter Building/FF are based in San Francisco California rather than New York – way too many heroes in the Marvel universe make their home in New York, I know why that is but in reality it really doesn't make all that much sense to have that many heroes in one city. I've also gone back and made some changes to the first chapter to show this and a few changes to Harry's past, so you might want to go back and skim for the changes.

I am going to be working on the premise that the FF have been in operation for roughly four years by this point, and that they are the only really identifiable super heroes in the world, but that there have been rumors, hints of other groups and vigilantes, such as meta-humans and mutants, appearing in increasing regularity – Shield is around obviously, but is, as in the comics (from what I can remember anyway) an American run institution – I don't remember them running anything but black ops in other countries, but if someone knows differently then tell me. Spiderman has appeared on the scene recently, and of course there are super-villains galore, and Iron man is about to come on the scene. I have to say that in terms of chronology, the Marvel universe is really fucking difficult to create an accurate timeline for.

Oh, and again (as it bears repeating) in terms of the X-men I will be using the X-men Evolution universe: mutants have been coming out more and more, the team specifically are teenagers, the oldest of them in their last year of high school etc. So in terms of age Harry will be 21-22 and Jean and Scott 18-19, with the others a year younger, Ororo will be around 26-27. This means that Crystal won't be married to Quicksilver, as he'll be the same age as the x-men and she'll be older. I won't be putting her with Harry though so don't ask, I do have plans for her later, I was appalled at what happened to her and to Wanda Maximoff in the original and neither will be running into the same issues in **my **story.. Emma will be the same age, not yet part of the hellfire club, but about to join – which will occur but differently.

Oh and there will be a bit of Magneto/Xavier/Scott bashing – the first two simply because of who Harry is and what he's gone through, not liking black and white or people who see the world like that or in terms of have and have nots, and the third because he's an emo dick.

**Since people have been asking me in the reviews, I will say again that the pairing is Harry/Ororo/Jean/Emma/Amara/Betsy Braddock/ maybe Sif, other alien and normal foreign girls - no one younger than 14 and no other mutants unless you can convince me via pm or review - and not Wanda **

* * *

**Chapter two: A step heard round the universe**

As they made their way back to where the portal to the Earth realm was hidden disguised by a rock made to look like a meteor, Harry began to ask questions about his new friends. "So I take it we've got one person with a fire power in Sparky over there," he nodded at Johnny who scowled at his nickname, another guy who's probably super strong," He nodded and Ben who nodded back, "and someone who stretches. The ladies must love you by the way."

This statement actually caused Reed to blush a little and Ben and Johnny both burst into laughter. Susan however growled a little. "They better not!" She said sharply.

"What's the matter sis," Johnny caroled, "a little jealous that others might be looking at the bright big brain over there?"

"Not at all, they can look all they want." She said, "As long as he remembers that he belongs to me." Harry looked over at Reed and nudged him in the ribs at the possessive tone of the blond woman, and the older man actually grinned a little back at him.

"So what's your power, Mrs.?" said Harry.

Before Susan could answer Johnny spoke up "Oh, she can turn invisible and she can project these invisible shields of various sizes too."

Harry stopped in space, staring at her in horror. "My god in heaven, that's the most terrifying power I've ever heard of."

The others all looked at him in shock. Secretly all three of the men had felt that Susan was a bit of a wallflower in comparison to their own abilities, though Reed at least knew it was not so much because of her power, but because of her personality. "Why in the world does that terrify you when my face doesn't?" Ben asked, half joking, half seriously.

"She can turn invisible," Harry said calmly. "Do you have any idea the number of pranks she could pull on you if she wanted to? Trust me, I'm speaking from experience."

"Well my wife isn't exactly much for pranks," Reed said, and Susan nodded. She wasn't, but the thought did have some appeal. The next time Johnny left her with his laundry or brought home a date who spent the night without first telling her he would be in for a shock, or if Ben broke any more of her plates. And if she ever woke up again with Reed having secretly gone off to his laboratory without telling her or at least kissing her goodbye just wait…. Both Reed and Johnny suddenly felt a bit of the chill go up their back.

Harry however said, "But that's not all you said. She can create invisible shield's right?"

"Yeeees," said Ben slowly, wondering where the kid was going with this.

"That means she could create them around your nether regions right, and sort of shrink them, or around any other body part, you'd be taken apart slowly by something you couldn't see."

All four of them looked at him in surprise and then Sue cocked her head thoughtfully. "I guess I could." She said, "I've never thought of using them on distinct and different body parts for him, I wonder if that would work, I can change their shape after all. Thanks Harry."

"You're welcome" he chirped happily. "Just don't use them on me all right? I like my wedding tackle the way it is, thank you very much." Susan turned to the others and grinned evilly at them and all three of the men silently declared vengeance on Harry for introducing Susan to that idea.

They were nearly back to the portal, most of the time spent with Reed and the others explaining their adventures to Harry, when another flight of Annihilus's troops came upon them, appearing over a large rock that Ben was passing close to. Ben charged forward using his jet packs slamming two of them together and then throwing them at the others, but before anyone else could even move Harry had turned insanely fast and used his odd powers on the others. Two of them were turned into rocks, another was changed into a spear then used to slam into another one killing him instantly and the fifth was simply held motionless in the air. This all happened in an instant and Reed shook his head at the insane reflexes of the other young man and the power he used so easily. Agatha was rated a strong magic user, but she had never shown anything on that scale before. Harry though…. "Is there any limit to those transforming powers of yours?"

Harry shrugged. "Quite a few actually, though I've discovered through trial and error that they react differently here in the negative zone than elsewhere. Before I arrived here I would never have been able to transfigure, that's the real term old boy, living matter, especially an intelligent lifeform, to an inanimate object, and there are limitations to what I can conjure. I don't know if my power grew here somehow or what though."

Reed nodded, though he wasn't really mollified. The young man was friendly enough, but also very dangerous, and that worried him.

With a wave of his hand, and now that Reed was looking he saw a wooden ring on one of Harry's fingers, the alien that was held in the air started to come towards him slowly, obviously not under his own power. Reed asked "What are you going to do with him?" The fact that most of the other attackers had been killed by Harry did not sit well with him.

Harry shrugged. "I was going to tell him a message for his boss." When the thing was close enough, he said "Tell your boss that this Earth and these heroes are under my protection. I'm certain he won't want a redo of the pink tutu incident yes?" The thing shook its head wildly. Every inhabitant of the Negative Zone that Harry and run into had found that he was slightly, well insane, even by their standards, but that dying fighting him was often better than his practical jokes and punishments, well to them at least. Annihilus spent two months dressed in a pink tutu along with half of his forces regardless of anything he tried to change his armor or get rid of the effect the last time he had tried to attack Harry. "Good lad, now off you trot." The beast flew off after gathering up the two Ben had knocked out, thankful beyond words that Harry hadn't added any humiliating joke or anything else before sending him on his way. Harry turned to the Fantastic Four smiling crookedly. "Shall we go?"

Reed looked at the others then shrugged and they set off again. They got back to the portal without further incident. Reed sent a signal at it via a small handheld device and the disguise fell away. Another and the portal activated. Harry looked at it. "Interesting, so are you going to shut this down when you get to the other side, hint, hint, wink, wink?"

Reed was a little reluctant to agree to that. "The Negative Zone is so fascinating though," he said thoughtfully, "think of what we could learn from it." He sensed th younger man was a bit of a thinker as well, and hoped to appeal to that aspect of his personality.

Harry however disillusioned him swiftly. "We could learn that there are other races out there who are more powerful than our own and could wipe us out with a thought," he said bluntly. "Believe me I've met some of them. I'll tell you what I know about the Negative Zone, but it is not a place to go exploring in for the heck of it."

Susan nodded sharply. "I agree, I know that you had to go into the Negative Zone to find something to help me during my pregnancy Reed, but Annihilus has shown that he is a major threat to us, and look what almost happened to our baby. He's not the only one either, remember Blastarr?" She had not led Franklin out of her arms the entire time, and the baby had not exactly been displeased by this, snuggling and cooing against her neck.

Reed hesitated for a moment and sighed and nodded. "Perhaps you're right, I think I've been spending far too much time in the laboratory lately anyway."

Susan looked at him in shock. Then a small blossoming smile appeared on her face that put another smile on his face in turn and Harry nodded. "Good, and don't worry about spending too much time in your lab anymore. I think two hours a day should do." Reed flinched at that, he'd been thinking more like five or six hours a day. But Harry ignored his horrified look and said, "Every hour after that I will prank you, with increasing fervor and zeal as the day goes on."

"What is this obsession with pranks you have?" Ben asked curiously, trying to run interference for Reed, who was looking more and more dyspeptic, though Susan was smiling appreciatively.

"Blame my father figure for that one," Harry said, laughing. "He was part of a group of students; I guess you could call them student activists called the Marauders who acted out against the pureblood movement by pranking them all mercilessly during their school years. Sneaking around doing them though did help them learn how to fight and sneak around once they got out of school. As the only true one remaining he passed on his pranking spirit to me. And now that I have an audience who will actually see the humor of it I'm anxious to get back into the swing of things."

Ben laughed at that and the five of them moved through the portal.

Around the Earth and elsewhere the first step of Harry Potter on to the earth of this dimension caused several different effects as those with power felt the arrival of something new and different.

* * *

In New York Dr. Strange looked on quizzically as several demons who a would-be demonologist just summoned to do his bidding suddenly started screaming. They sounded so terrified that he was moved to ask, "Excuse me, but what seems to be the trouble here?" _Could some greater demon belonging to another faction be on this plain? I have not sensed anything like that, nor has the orb of Agamotto._

" The sword of light is here, the sword of light is here!" shouted one of the demons a minor imp that had better vocal cords, but far less power and intelligence than most of the greater demons, "were doomed!"

One of them was running in a circle shouting, "Game over man, game over!"

For some reason Dr. Strange's eyebrow began to twitch at that line it was decidedly too human in his mind. Demons should be dark and evil beings, they should not suddenly start running around gibbering in terror as if they were so many scared children. A moment after he thought this, one of them, the largest the demonologist had been able to summon said "retreat!" and they all ducked back into the portal that the demonologist opened to hell.

The demonologist in question had just stood there gaping the entire time and now finding himself alone against Dr. Strange raised hand and said "I demand a do over, that batch was obviously defective!"

Dr. Strange's eyebrow twitched again and he summoned his power forming magical manacles around the man as well as around his mouth. "I think not." Elsewhere other magic users felt the effect, wondering where the spike of raw power they felt came from. Some of them wondered if it could be turned to serve their purposes, while others determined to stay well away from whatever it was.

* * *

While Wyatt was greeting the fantastic four and their new friend happily, they had been gone over two days local time after all, days which he spent manning around the portal, another magic user was reacting to being far closer to the source of power than she wanted to be.

Agatha Harkness was shocked out of her unconscious state by the first step of a Fate Marked onto the realm of Earth. Agatha had been around for a long time, since the Salem witch trials in face, and she could tell these things. She would have to go search for this fellow, as soon as she was able to walk. While both of them had sustained a beating she was after all an older woman, and a few days wasn't enough time to put her back on her feet. Wyatt the young scamp had been up and about within two days, curse him. She looked up when the door opened and was not at all surprised to see her familiar Ebony slinking under her bed. "You can feel it to, old friend?" The cat creature meowed unhappily and she nodded. "Yes, that says it all really."

Nor was it only magic users who felt the pulse of Harry's presence in their world.

* * *

In upstate New York a computer named Cerebro began to jingle jangle its alarms. Prof. Xavier of the Salem Institute for intelligence, psychologist and world-renowned speech giver and peacemaker, looked up in alarm as the noise interrupted their midday meal. Thankfully all the kids were at school, and the only ones there were Logan and Ororo. Both of them walked with him as he moved his wheelchair along the floor into the secret elevator that took them down into the main area of the X-Men's headquarters. Soon the helmet portion of Cerebro was on the professor's bald head and he swiftly began to control the computer, using it to heighten his own powers and scanning around to find what had set the machine off.

After a moment he sighed and said "It's nothing to concern ourselves with, no danger to the school. But it would appear as if a mutant has appeared on the scene and a rather powerful one going by the readings I'm getting, has appeared somewhere in California. I'll try to isolate it, and then we shall have to take a trip out there to see what we can find out about this new mutant and if we want to recruit him or her."

Ororo frowned. "I don't think that the Blackbird can take us that far without refueling, does that mean we are going have to book a commercial flight?"

Xavier nodded, "Yes, I think we will, I've been meaning to stop in and speak with Reed and Susan anyway."

Logan grunted but inside he was happy about the trip. Ben was always fun to play cards with, and one of the few who could keep up with his beer intake.

Ororo on the other hand, kept her mind on business. "How exactly are we going to explain to the kids that we need to go to sunny California with its beaches and everything without them?""

Xavier coughed uncomfortably. "Well that my dear I think we can let that in your capable hands. I need to stay here and figure out where specifically the signal is coming from."

"I'll see if I can boost the Blackbird's range," said Logan quickly "that way we won't have to take a commercial flight."

As Logan hurried out and Xavier started to ignore her pointedly Ororo scowled a little, but that was all the emotion she could allow herself with her need to remain calm to not affect local weather conditions. She still took a moment though to imagine some kind of retribution falling on the two men's heads for this before she sighed and walked out of the computer room.

* * *

Xavier was not the only one who could tell that the new powerful mutant it arrived on the scene. Magneto couldn't quite get the information Cerebro could give Xavier, but he could tell him where in the general vicinity i.e. he could narrow it down to a state where a new mutant was. He frowned thoughtfully. The Fantastic Four operated in California, and he had no desire to tangle with them, but he did want to find out who this new mutant was and if possible sway him to his cause. Drumming his fingers on his seat for a moment he decided to send Mystique rather than go himself or send one of his other associates. She was one of the most diplomatic followers he had and one of the sneakiest.

* * *

Yet it was not only on earth that the ripple of Harry Potter's footstep was felt. In a place with no name, no sky, and no passage of time in a castle that looked incredibly old a woman cloaked in a black cloak from head to foot looked up. Though nothing of her face could be seen, her body was very feminine, and the cloak was formfitting save around her face. Yet even as she stood there silently an observer, if there could be such a thing here, would have been able to see her actually shaking a little. And after a moment could tell that it was from anger.

* * *

Susan smiled happily, rocking her baby in her arms. "Well Harry this is the Baxter Building, we own the top five floors, and have several suites you can use for yourself if you want to, I don't know what you want to do with your life now that you're here, but we can at least give you a home for a few weeks until you decide for yourself."

Harry shook Wyatt's hand and looked around him admiring all the technology he could see. "Thank you for that Mrs. Richards, I think I'll take you up on that one. Just judging from the tech I see this world is a bit more advanced than the world I'm originally from. I also want to find out why you know about magic, but have never heard of wizard society. That tells me there is a distinct difference from my world to this one."

"Yuck research," Johnny muttered, but Harry nodded eagerly, then froze.

"Um, one moment please," he said before the others could move forward. They watched as Harry reached into a pocket on his suit and pulled out what looked like a small snuffbox. He set it on the ground and tapped it with a finger and it suddenly began to grow.

Reed shook his head. "I've seen Agatha do some interesting things with magic but something like this still makes me wonder where the mirrors are."

"That's the second time you've mentioned a magic user by that name," said Harry as he opened the now large trunk. He reached inside and gently pulled out what looked at first to be a stuffed owl. This notion was proven false however, as soon as all of its body was out of the trunk.

Wyatt looked on with interest as the snowy owl, the genus Bubo scandiacus, (unlike the others he knew a thing or five hundred about animals), came alive and started to peck angrily at Harry's hand and face. "Preck!"

As the others looked on in surprise and with growing smiles, the owl continued its attack on a beleaguered Harry. "Ow, ow, Hedwig, bloody, ow, cut it out Hedwig, ow, you know it, ow it was for your own good Hed, you, ow stop it, you know I wouldn't have done something like that if it wasn't necessary!" The snowy owl did not stop for several minutes then came to light on his shoulder nipping at his ear and pulling at his hair.

Harry shook his head, then turned to the others. "Ladies and gentlemen," he said dryly. "I give you Hedwig. When I took my jaunt through the veil of Death she wanted to come with me. Eventually I had to put her in stasis, there's nothing whatsoever she can eat in the Negative Zone. Or at least nothing I've found, and conjured food doesn't sustain you. And unfortunately, this is purely a trunk for the storage of items, not people. So I had to put her in stasis and put her in there. And as you can tell she's rather cross with me." Hedwig precked again, but much softer this time and Harry raised a cautious hand up to her. When the owl didn't nip at it, he slowly began to stroke her chest feathers. "Sorry, girl, I did tell you that this trip would be trouble."

Susan looked at the bird appreciatively. "She's magnificent. I don't think I've ever seen an owl quite like that one before."

Harry chortled, his fingers still busy stroking the snowy owls plumage. "Oh, she's one of a kind is my Hedwig."

"So she's, what, you're familiar or something?" Johnny asked.

"Precisely who is whose master is still a matter of much debate between us" said Harry drolly, "One I refuse to bring up because I'm afraid I might lose."

The others all laughed and Susan said "Well you can patch things up with your owl later, there's a room with a window down that hallway. It also has a bath so you can get changed and rest up."

"Bath," said Harry blankly standing stock still, one foot still raised mid-step. "Do you know the last time I had a bath? You can't conjure water in the negative zone for some reason, it always evaporates too quickly or the spell just doesn't work. A bath, I would cheerfully immolate a word for a bath. You have an enemy you want me to hunt down and dismember for you? Seriously I'll do it in a second for a bath. My dear lady, please show me the way to this magnificent marvel!"

Susan laughed and pointed down the hallway again. "Fifth door on the right." She said his simply.

"Oh thank you thank you thank you "Harry said then actually skipped down the hallway to the room, Hedwig still perched on his shoulder.

Reed followed him intent on asking some questions about the Negative Zone while it was still fresh in the young man's mind. He started off by saying, "I'm fascinated by that suit you're wearing. I can tell it's not just rubber or something like that. Care to explain what it's made from?"

Hedwig had flown up to perch on the ship bedpost and Harry had already peeled off the top of the suit, showing several sets of scars to Reed who looked at them, then away. He knew the signs of war when he saw them. After all, he and Ben had both fought in World War II together. That and the young man's eyes and stance told him a lot about this civil war the boy had survived. _If he was really in the Negative Zone for five years he must have fought in the war at fifteen or sixteen, no child should fight a war that young. What in the world were his people thinking, what was he thinking?_

"I call it a crisis suit, I took the name form a game advertisement I saw in the window of a game store at one point. Of course, my relatives would never allow me to own the actual game, but the name was sort of cool. One of my friends…"here he paused, looking out into the distance at something Reed couldn't see, though he recognized that look all too well, before he went on. "One of my friends and I developed it or at least the concept behind it, and I created it before I was exiled. It's fueled by magic and has dozens of protective wards, spells and runic symbols worked into it, as well as some that have changed the atomic composition of it. I imagine though your own suits are rather advanced scientifically, can't imagine them surviving being set on fire or stretched otherwise."

Reed nodded. "True, but I would love to sit down with you and compare the two, as well as pick your brain about the Negative Zone."

By this time Harry was down to his underwear, looking over at the bed and said thoughtfully. "I hope you blokes don't mind, but I'm going to kip out for a bit. I can't remember the last time I've had a good night's sleep, as in the full eight bloody hours of sleep. In the Negative Zone you either live by naps and sleep with one eye open or you soon die."

Reed nodded. "I'll make certain there's some food in the kitchen for you if you wake up at any point. It's one floor below us to the right of the elevator."

Harry waved him off and opened the door on the side of his new room sighing happily as he saw the porcelain bath there. "I'll talk to you all tomorrow okay?" Reed nodded and left him there, then went outside to spend time with his wife and son.

* * *

After staying in the bath until he was decidedly wrinkly Harry got out, and then promptly collapsed onto the bed, sighing happily as the springs gave underneath him. He could have conjured his own bed of course while in the Negative Zone, but there he had to be on guard all the time. He had found to his chagrin that ward stones and rune based shields did not block out all the enemies the strange universe he found himself in contained, especially the ones that didn't actually think. Most wards were based on intent, and had never really been designed, not the ones he had learned about, to keep out wild animals, at least not wild animals that were below a certain size. Some of the most dangerous things in the Negative Zone were small flying rodents that looked like a freaky mix of mouse and scorpion, simply because the poison they contained in their scorpion like tails were poisonous to every other living thing. Harry had been stung once and had from been sick for over a three months, despite the immunity to most poisons he had developed after being bitten by a basilisk in his second year at Hogwarts.

Above him Hedwig looked down found fondly on her Harry, happy that he had once again found a place where she could stretch her wings. The place where they had been before this had bothered her senses so much she could barely fly, let alone hunt, and Harry was right, there was no food she could eat there. Their connection had sustained her for a time, but eventually it wouldn't have been enough, and his decision, as much as she was angered by it, had probably saved her life. Not that she was going to let up on him about it of course, not until he came up with the appropriate payment. She went from the bed posts to the window and with her beak very carefully opened the latch and flew off into the dark. She saw immediately they were in a city and she gave the owl equivalent of a harrumph. She much preferred to hunt in woods or fields, but beggars could not be choosers.

Behind her Harry fell swiftly deep into REM sleep. But that night, his dreams were not his own.

* * *

Harry found himself standing in a large gallery filled with mist, yet he could make out what looked like statues of some kind through the mist. He cocked an eyebrow in thought _okay, I haven't had a dream like this before. _ Then he looked down at himself and noticed that he was fully clothed despite having gone to bed naked. _Lucid dreaming I believe is the phrase? Where you know you're dreaming and yet have a sense of self inside the dream? Never really studied dreams all that much, of course, most of my dreams were nightmares. Growing up with the Dursleys and Dumbledore's idiocy will do that to one. Still, I guess I could just wander around and see what's here._

The first wax statue he came to came alive as he moved near it, shifting and moving into a specific shape rather than a formless blob. After a moment it stopped and he realized that the figure it had assumed was Neville Longbottom, one of his best friends and steadfast allies. He looked around at the other statues, which he couldn't quite make out through the fog. "I do hope this isn't some kind of gallery of past acquaintances. That would be rather depressing." He said it lightly, but his eyes were serious as he looked at Neville.

Anyone who had met Neville when he was a young boy would have been astonished at the man he had become in his fifteenth year. He had slimmed down and trimmed up, his shoulders were wide and his whole body spoke of strength, his brown ieyes hard in a face lined with lined with care yet stern as a rock.

"What am I supposed to say to you old friend," Harry said softly, looking at Neville's face. "You stood up with me when nearly everyone else didn't, you stood shoulder to shoulder against Voldemort and everything that madman could throw at us, and when you went down, you went down swinging. People questioned your courage, but I tell you now I have never known a truer defender, a truer friend than you. Godric himself would've been proud of you, and I was proud to have been your friend."

Neville grinned at him and held up a thumbs up and Harry moved on.

The next figure was of Bellatrix Black, who glared hatefully as Harry approached. This time Harry stopped a little further away, well out of reach (caution was always a good thing when dealing with the insane) and stared at her. "Okay," He said aloud, "so this isn't going to just be my friends and dearly departed. Good, variety is good for the soul." He stared at Bellatrix and said "You were the first person I ever killed. I can't say murdered, of course, we were after all fighting at the time, but still you are the first life I took, and that stuck with me for a while. I remember throwing up quite a bit afterwards."

Bellatrix's lips curled stinger at that admission but her face mellowed as he went on. "You taught me more about fighting in those 20 minutes then I had learned from Sirius and all of our spars leading up to it. You are insane, a complete madwoman," he said blandly and the figure scowled a little, "and you're politics and beliefs were complete anathema to me, yet you were a true warrior, who never asked for quarter and for that alone at least I will salute you." Bellatrix glared at him, but nodded her head in thanks for this sign of respect, and he moved on.

The next two statues were together and caused Harry to break out in something like a strangled laugh. "Daphne and Tracy" he said, his voice a little manic. "Together here as in life." He then sobered as he looked at their faces were both smiling brightly at him. "I'm sorry." He said, and they frowned. "I'm sorry for leading you into that mess, I'm sorry for letting you fight with me, I'm sorry I failed to keep you alive, I've had years to get over the fact, and I know up here," He said, tapping his brain "that no one could've known that Voldemort would open the gates to hell in that fight, but down here." He said, tapping at his chest over his heart, "it's a different story. You're my friends and I should've tried to protect you better." The two of them were there glaring at him and he shook his head. "I know what you would say if you could speak, 'it wasn't your fault Harry', but that doesn't mean that I don't think it was."

"Although," he suddenly smirked at them. "That isn't really the memory I think of when I think of you these days. No, that would be the memory of me finding you two making out in the charms classroom that one time without your tops on." They both blushed a little and he held up two thumbs in a salute. "Still the hottest thing I've ever seen." They laughed and he moved on.

Harry was surprised to find a statue of Remus Lupin of all people as the next in line. Harry stood for a moment, looking at him shaking his head. "I have no idea why you're here. You didn't teach me anything and you certainly weren't my friend. You're just this person who should've been watching out for me when I was younger and who didn't. You were just this person who was once friends to my family, and who failed them miserably."

The werewolf tried to open his mouth, but no words came out, and Harry shook his head sharply. "You let that affliction of yours be a readymade excuse to cover your own laziness," he said coldly. "An excuse for everything that was wrong in your life and every time you didn't want to put in any effort. 'I can't keep a job I've just been given because I'm a werewolf. I can't be near my Godson because I'm a werewolf.' I have no idea how you died, I just know you did, and it would not surprise me in the slightest to find you died like you lived, a coward hiding from himself and the world around him." With that he would didn't even bother waiting for Remus to nod or do anything he just moved off.

Next came the blonde beauty Narcissa Malfoy and Harry stopped looking at her in surprise. "All right," he said softly. "Now I know it isn't just people who I know have died. Someone's been searching around in my memories. I mean, you were certainly alive and well when I went through the veil." Narcissa smirked at him and unlike on many other faces who tried that look, on her it looked magnificent. "The last I heard of you were still causing angst and anger in the pureblood community by being seen on topless beaches in Italy with several young mundane born men." Narcissa didn't even blush she simply smiled wider and Harry shook his head. "Getting you away from your husband and son was a good deed I will never forget or regret."

"Although," he said lightly "you know you were my first masturbation fantasy. Narcissa's his eyes widened and she looked at him in surprise. "That's what happens when a MILF as gorgeous as you are say to a young, impressionable boy, 'if there's anything I can do to repay you, anything at all, don't hesitate to call'. What did you expect me to do? I wish I had actually gotten up the courage to call you, but it was still too close to when Hermione…." he trailed off it, but then shook himself and smirked lopsidedly at her. "That would've felt wrong, but when I jerked to thinking of you it felt so right." The MILF broke out laughing and waved him on.

His good humor lasted for the next two he saw, both girls who he had briefly gone out with and who he knew were still alive when he left. Angelina Johnson had taught him ways to use his parseltongue that he would never have thought of on his own before leaving Britain to live in Australia with her family, and Lavender Brown had given him the most enthusiastic snog of his life.

His good humor evaporated when he came to the next figure. Albus Dumbledore stood before him in all his glittery splendor. But just as in life Harry saw beneath the splendor to the reality underneath. "Okay, I have no idea what the pattern is supposed to be here. I hope that whoever is doing this doesn't think I'd be happy to see you of all people? Not after everything you allowed to happen to me and to others."

The old man looked at him unhappily and Harry shook his head. "You and your pureblood beliefs caused more trouble and long term harm to the magical community than anything riddle ever did. And then you went and got yourself and more than two thirds of your chicken club killed trying to fight fairly and with kids gloves against an enemy who wouldn't know the word mercy if you smacked him upside the head with a dictionary!"

"You were stuck in the past, your past beliefs, your past hopes, your past dreams and past glories. You refused to step into the present and do what needed to be done. Being a part of sending riddle back every year to a orphanage where he was abused and you knew it? And then letting his depredations continue when you could have stepped in and stopped it at any time? And then you allowed what happened to Hermione to occur. Nothing you have ever done, no good you could ever do, would excuse that." Harry shook his head. "There is a special place in hell reserved for you old man, and I hope you roast on the coals for all eternity."

The next person however put a smile back on his face. "Sirius!" he exclaimed happily stepping forward and looking at the other man closely. He reached out, but his hand passed right through the man and he sighed sadly. "I figured that. Well" he said, voice softening as he looked at his father figure. "You gave me something I didn't even know I needed, a male role model. You were crazy like a fox despite your dog form, you never looked down on me or treated me as less than I was or as a child. You treated me like a friend and a younger brother and that was precisely what I needed. I wish I could've saved you, just like I wish I could've saved all of my friends, but I know that you at least are in a better place. I hope you said hi to my parents for me, but I don't think I'm going to be joining you for a long time yet." He smirked suddenly at the marauder. "You all were right, I have my whole life ahead of me and a new world to spend it in. Besides, there are way too many pranks I want to do on people for me to die."

Sirius laughed silently and gave him a merry thumbs up and Harry nodded and moved on.

The next figure, Harry was surprised to see, was a normal looking Tom Riddle. Not the pathetic rather horrible looking serpentine man he had been when last they clashed, but the younger, human version. Harry looked at him and shook his head. "I should hate you, but as the war dragged on, I felt more pity for you than anything else, especially after I learned what you're childhood was like. I looked at that and knew that I could've gone the same way all too easily. Then you were so afraid of the ultimate reality, which no one can escape and that must claim us all in the end, regardless of our station in life, that to escape it you split your soul."

He stared at the younger Riddle thoughtfully, then shook his head again. "I think you just lost something in that ritual. By the time I really started to fight you, you were this pathetic mad thing bent on destroying everything and everyone who stood against you. There was no more ideals, no more plans for the future or the betterment of magic-kind. There was just your own power and trying desperately to live on past your time. Now looking back on it, I just wonder how things could have been different if someone realized the road you were going down and helped you." Harry wearily just waved his hand and moved on leaving a very thoughtful looking Tom Riddle behind him.

The next statue he came to was the one that feared yet yearned to see the most and he paused, drinking in the sight of her. "Hermione…" He whispered and she looked at him that bright happy grin on her face. He shook his head, laughing a little. But there were tears in his eyes. "Now I know this place isn't real, the real Hermione would've already launched herself at me in one of her patented Hermie Hugs."

Hermione laughed silently and nodded her head. Harry walked up to her, standing less than a foot away staring at her. "What am I supposed to say to you?" he said softly, "My best friend, my first love? Would we have been together forever and been happily married ever after? Would we have found out after a few more months that we were better as best friends than as lovers? I don't know" he said, his voice scratchy, eyes glistening with emotion, "but I would've loved to find out. I would've loved to find out many things" Harry shook himself and smirked a little, "especially whether or not your hair down there was as curly as your hair on your head" he said, wiggling his eyebrows dramatically.

The Hermione figure blushed rosily but that was all.

Harry laughed a little still staring at her then said simply, his voice full of conviction. "I will make you proud of me." He stared around as all his friends had come forward with more statues that he hadn't stopped by, all the people that he had cared for, and he looked around them and said with a smile and tears in his eyes. "'Think where man's glory begins and ends and say my glory was, I had such friends'. I keep part of all of you inside and I was proud, honored to have known all of you."

That said he shook his head angrily and called forth his magical power. His hands began to crackle with the Potter Lightning, a class of magical spells that only the Potter family could use that was incredibly devastating as an offensive weapon. "Enough!" he shouted. "This trip down memory lane was amusing at first and then horrifying! Whoever you are you had better have a damn good reason for this, and even if you do if you are not powerful enough to immediately give me pause I will do all I can to destroy you and scatter your ashes across the dimensions!"

He concentrated further and brought his hands up, pulsing with magical energy. With a crackle and a pop the entire vision faded to reveal a well built but incredibly ancient looking castle. And across from him stood someone in a cloak with a skull for her face and eye that glowed with a blue so cold it hurt to look at them.

Harry stared at her for a long tense moment then nodded, the tension leaving his body. "I guess you are powerful enough to give me pause. If this is about the so-called Hallows, you can take the stick and the ring, though I would rather like to keep the cloak. It's a family heirloom you know."

Death or rather the anthropomorphic personification of death in this dimension, who had chosen to take a female form, stared at him. "You are not shocked or angry? You would give up that power?" She said after a pause, her voice deep and sepulchral yet somehow feminine.

Harry shrugged, "Master of death!" he laughed. "No one can 'master' death. It's just an ending, Dumbledore was right about that at least. just the doorway to the next great adventure. And no I don't care to keep them, if you want them back. But as I said I would like to keep the cloak. And as for being angry, what would anger serve? I can't fight you. I can feel your power, and I know what you represent. Besides," he added thoughtfully "I needed to say some things to them that I never had the chance to say real life so in a way, that trip down memory lane was good for me."

Death stared at him. She had never come across a being like this. There was no fear his face, no fear in his entire being yet he stood face to face with the ultimate reality. And there was no longer any anger in him either; he truly did believe what he said. Here, she realized, was a living being who she could actually deal with honestly, and not expect to have to do deal with attempts to trick or renege on their deal. "I cannot simply take them, the rules binding those like me forbid that. I have no idea what my idiotic counterpart in your universe was thinking creating them in the first place, but they really do what they say they do when brought together. You could command me if you so wish, though I would say that I am far more powerful than the personification from your dimension, and I would fight your control every second of every day."

Harry shrugged conjuring a seat for himself and set down. "I don't want them, as I said I don't think anyone should command death. It seems a horrible responsibility to give to anyone, and I wouldn't what want the job. Could we perhaps make a trade? I'd rather like a new wand, I've sort of missed the things, though I of course don't want to regain the dependency on them most of the wizards and witches in my own dimension had."

Death thought about it for a minute, then nodded. "That would seem to be a fair trade, a new wand with all new parts, in trade for the death stick, and then fused with your body for the return of the ring. Had Death an actual human face it would have been twisted into a grimace of contempt. Of the three hallows that ring was the one that most horrified her. Death was an ending. It wasn't supposed to be a freaking window that people could look through with the right device, especially not when it caused the dead pain to be looked at like that by the living.

Harry nodded. "Agreed, how do we do this?"

Death raised a hand and the suddenly found themselves in a massive forest. Harry looked around him and saw dozens, hundreds, thousands of tree types, and just knew that there was only one of each type. "Move around and tell me which has the most reaction to you." Harry nodded and did so.

He searched for what seemed like hours, yet none of the trees called to him. Eventually he exited the forest and found himself suddenly staring at a tree whose sheer size his minds couldn't even grasp, the word massive seemed horribly inaccurate and far too small to describe it. Yet this one called out to him and he gently reached out to tap a root, which was the only part of the tree could reach. "This one." It sang to him, far more than his old wand ever had, far more than even the Death Stick.

"A piece of wood from the world tree, Yggdrassil." Death said in surprise and a stick fell from way, way above them to land in her palm. She clicked her bony fingers and the two now found themselves elsewhere in a strange white room, whose walls were made of tiny rectangles that shimmered like mirrors or glass. "Send out a magic pulse here and what will become your new core will appear."

Harry nodded then gathered himself and sent out a massive burst of magic as strong as he could, figuring that the more powerful it was the more it would tell whatever cores were around about him. After a moment a small crystal filled with a sort of glowing fire appeared in front of him and he caught it before it could hit the ground. Death now looked a little shaken. "Phoenix flame held in a splinter of the Mkraan Crystal." She said softly. _No wonder the youth wants to get rid of the Death Stick _she thought. Everything he had picked was about life and the defense of life, whereas the Death Stick was made to end it.

After that she transported them back to her castle, and Death conjured up a table long enough for Harry to lay down on. "Lay down" she commanded, "and I will fuse these into your body."

Harry gulped a little, but nodded and laid down. He could not stop himself however as her hands hovered above him, "you know, I've had a few doctor fantasies that…"

Without even thinking Death smacked him upside the head and he fell silent with a little grin on his face. Death shook her head, wondering where the heck that had come from, and then decided that she needed to get this young man out of her realm as swiftly as possible. He was life personified, chaotic living, breathing life, and it was affecting even her.

It took her several minutes to fuse the pieces into his body and the process was slow and rather painful for Harry, as was watching the Crystal disappear into his chest and the wood of the shaft, split in two disappear into his arms. After what seemed an eternity however, Death pulled back and nodded her head. "It is done, now give me my due."

She tensed waiting for the young man to try and escape her realm, but he merely nodded and reached into a pocket. He pulled out the ring and tossed it to her almost negligently. He then tapped the ring that he already had on his finger, which suddenly transformed into the Death stick.

He handed that across to her as well, smiling gently. "Now where's the exit and don't take this poorly, but I hope it will be a long time before I see you again. I have a whole new world to explore" he said happily his emerald eyes shining "and a whole lot of dreams I need to achieve for the people I've left behind."

Death nodded and with a wave Harry was gone. She looked at the items in her hand and then slowly, methodically crushed them both into a find powder and inhaled, taking their essence and power into herself. That done she turned back to her work with the final thought. _ I wonder what will happen when that young man meets he we who is trying to woo me. the phrase 'Sparks will fly' will not just be a phrase anymore,_ ringing in her head.

* * *

Harry woke up early the next morning, as was his wont, a holdover from his days with the Dursleys and the fact he'd kipped out so early, barely five in the evening by the clock by the bed. Once he could open his eyes immediately looked down at his hand. When he didn't see the ring wand there he smiled. _So it wasn't all a dream, good, I would've been a bit worried if it was. It might have made me question my sanity. _ This was a joke of course. Harry knew full well he wasn't quite sane anymore, not after five years alone traveling the Negative Zone. Still, it hadn't seemed to have a negative effect on him yet.

He glanced up at the headboard and, seeing no Hedwig there shrugged and got up, transfiguring a set of clothing from the bed sheet. Following the directions Mrs. Richards had given him he took the elevator down and found his way to the kitchen, but was surprised to see he wasn't the first one up.

Wyatt looked up as he entered and nodded cordially to the man he had been introduced to last night. "Morning. You're up early aren't you Harry?"

Harry waved at the Native American, making his way over to the fridge. "I could say the same to you, or is that part of the deal, you cook them breakfast and they don't charge you rent?" He said it jokingly, unsure of Wyatt's relationship to the Fantastic Four, other than Johnny had said he was a friend from college.

Wyatt laughed. "No, I get up to go running in the mornings, around here it's always best to run before the crowds are out."

"I might join you for that, I'd like to get in shape without having to rely on, you know, not eating and letting my magic sustain me. This is sort of a second chance at life after all it behooves me to make the most of it. I've far too many to live for to do anything else."

Wyatt sat sipping his tea. He had learned to like tea over coffee from his marital arts masters, and it gave him time to think. Harry wasn't quite what he had expected from the descriptions he had gotten from Johnny and the others. "So if this is a second life does that mean you believe in reincarnation?"

"I don't believe in much, not anymore. Religion wasn't really talked about in the wizarding world, and the Dursleys were Christian, but sure as hell never acted the way that religion said they should."

"Wizarding world? Everyone in your world could do magic?" _ Johnny had said something about him being an exile from a civil war…_

"No, the wizarding world was sort of apart from mundane world, and so backward and old fashioned it wasn't even funny. The purebloods, those who were in power and thought they were better because they could trace their magic back yahda yahda, liked it that way 'cause it kept them in power. Of course, some of the sods thought that wasn't enough and wanted magicals to rule over mundanes. That was the group I fought, though I suppose I should have been fighting the powers that be too."

"Hmmm," _So he wasn't part of the status quo, but more a counter terrorist to a extremist group, still a good cause at least. _"My own people have some magic, based on calling spirits and using their powers for various effects. And Agatha has her own powers, thought projection, shielding and so forth, they're quiet about it but there isn't a separate society for magic users here. What was this wizarding world like in the states, do you know?"

"I know they weren't exactly important, just the opposite in fact. Funny really, considering that America in this world and in mine in the mundane world was the world superpower." He raised an eyebrow and Wyatt nodded, indicating he was correct that was indeed the way it was here as well. Only Russia and China were in the same league, and neither could project power outside their borders as easily as America could. "Well magically America wasn't a united nation, but three warring states. The Cheyenne United Tribes was one of them, and south and north something or other, not America, some strange acronym. They were barely talked about outside derisive jokes in the UK. But I wonder why magic is so open here, you and the Fantastic Four shouldn't even know about it at all, not that I care of course, but it means there aren't any rules or overarching control, that could be good or bad. And one thing I know for certain was there wasn't any heroes in my world!"

"Huh, well, there aren't that many heroes, though there are rumors of some more appearing lately. Johnny and his family are the only group of heroes at the moment, though I remember hearing stories growing up about the super soldier Captain America and afew others like him."

"Captain America," Harry said shaking his head, "How…unoriginal."

Wyatt shrugged, not wanting to admit the captain had been one of his childhood heroes growing up on the reservation. "Well, what are you going to do with this new life you've been given? With your powers you could certainly be a hero, I imagine you could join the team, make it the Fantastic Five."

Harry shook his head, chuckling. "Being a hero isn't for me, and besides I don't want my powers to define me. A person's powers don't define him, you are defined by your choices. I want to make a difference, but not just with my powers, with my mind as well."

Wyatt nodded, smiling at the sentiment, one he believed strongly in as well. The two continued to chat as Harry began to cook breakfast, discussing what Wyatt knew of history and Harry nodding along. Harry did this completely by hand except right near the end, where he waved his hand over the meal and then towards the door of the kitchen. Wyatt looked at him quizzically but Harry just smirked.

The smell of pancakes and bacon began to waft into everyone's bedrooms, and soon enough Susan, carrying Franklin and followed by the others came in sniffing the air appreciatively. "What is that marvelous smell? Oh Harry, you didn't need to cook for us you know."

"Just a small show of my appreciation Mrs. Richards" Harry replied bowing grandly. "I'm used to cooking anyway, and despite the reasons for that I do enjoy it."

Johnny and Ben sat down and immediately began to fight over the pancakes until Harry waved a hand and the plate they were fighting over moved out of reach. "Manners gentlemen."

"An interesting and rather childish display of power boy." An old creaky voice sounded from the doorway, and Harry turned to see an old woman, straight and proud still but face lined with age, and gray hair turning full white in places. She wore clothing that wouldn't have been out of place in the wizarding world, and her deep, sharp and intelligent eyes were locked on Harry.

Harry shrugged. "It seemed more efficient than yelling at them. You must be Ms Harkness, Mr. Richards and the others mentioned you." He pulled up a seat himself after conjuring a baby chair for Franklin, getting a thank you from Susan, who put the bay in his seat and began to eat herself. The baby began to make a mess of his food

"I am, and I have to wonder where you have come from to posses magic like that." Agatha's eye narrowed further, conjuration without a magic circle or even a spoken spell was very advanced magic. She knew only a few magic users who could do that.

"Well I have questions for you too, could we sit down and swap stories after breakfast?" Agatha nodded agreeably, and Harry turned to Ben, who was reaching for an unintended plate or bacon. "I wouldn't touch that if I were you."

Ben looked at him, his craggy features confused but just then Hedwig flew down to land next to the plate and immediately reached down to snag a rasher of the precious substance. "That's why," Harry said. "So, am I forgiven Hedwig?" Hedwig turned her head all the way around to look at him then precked softly and went back to her meal. "That's good."

Susan shook her head. "You're quite owlpecked aren't Harry?" Harry shrugged but didn't deny it. "By the way, did you have enough clothing in that magic trunk of yours?"

"I actually didn't have any clothing in my trunks its full of…. Well a lot of other stuff really, books, seeds from magical plants for potions ingredients, plans for runic arrays, ward stones, and gold, lots of gold. I figure that can help me get started here. I'll probably need an ID of some kind."

"I don't suppose your luggage has legs does it?" Wyatt asked whimsically.

Harry eyebrows rose at the odd question. "No, I just shrink it and put it in a pocket if I want to carry it with me."

"Don't mind Wyatt, he's a major Terry Pratchett fan." Johnny said laughing. "Though the idea of a living luggage that can eat your enemies is one even I find kind of funny."

"Okay you've interest me. I take it this Terry Pratchett writes fantasy novels?"

"You're British and you've never heard of Terry Pratchett?" Wyatt gasped.

"I'm British and have never even seen the ocean." Harry replied glibly, though everyone else looked at him in a little shock. "So explain it to me."

"Well then why don't we go shopping in a few hours, after your discussion with Agatha. We can get you some clothing and show you a bit of the city, get you used to the world, and show you some of the books Wyatt likes so much. He didn't bring any of them with you did you?" Wyatt shook his head and the Invisible Woman nodded. "That sounds like a plan okay?" Harry nodded agreeably but all the other men replied that they had other things to do today, thanking their lucky stars that was the case. Harry however had no idea what he was in for.

* * *

Harry spent an informative two hours discussing the differences in magical history form his world to this one with Agatha and they both came to some tentative conclusions. For one thing, magic here could be broken into three categories: invocation, manipulation, and the use of magical items. Some items could be used by normal people, and normal people could learn invocation. There were some items however that Agatha knew of that you had to have a magical core to use, and manipulation of the world around you without invocations, calling on mystical entities for aid, was something only those with a magical core could do, and the size of that core impacted what a magic user could or could not do without invocation.

Harry's core was, in Agatha's mind, monstrously huge. She had only seen the like in one or two other magic users in her life time, and one of them was the Sorcerer Supreme. Nor did Harry use invocation at all, and was incredibly leery about the entire idea of calling on mystical entities for aid, and he had no wish to use magical items, though he could of course create them. His crisis suit was one such, and he had plans to make more in the future. After all, Annihilus might be the first of many to target Franklin to get back at the Fantastic Four for their past deeds.

Agatha was surprised and oscillating wildly between impressed and extremely unimpressed by the Wizarding World. Some of the things they could do with their power, the wards and specific spells were fascinating, but the society, the greed, the elitism, the lack of advancement appalled her, as did Harry's own history. Even given in brief it was enough to make her want to **talk** to this Dumbledore fellow who dared call himself an educator.

After that Susan took Harry out to shop for some new clothing for him. Agatha still wasn't up for watching Franklin, but Reed had decided he would be watching his son for the day, something that put another little smile on Susan's face that promised good things for Reed, which put an almost goofy smile on his own face.

Harry learned firsthand the horrors of shopping something he had been able to avoid up till now but still had fun despite the trip going on for far longer than it should have. The utter and complete newness of everything he was seeing, form the weather, fair and hot, something he wasn't used to, to the technology he was seeing. The cd players were fantastic, as well as the computers, though Susan said they had better back in the Baxter building. At that point, Harry vowed to spend as long as possible catching up on the technology as fast as he could. He was going to need it eventually. Already Harry was thinking of the future, and what he wanted to do with his life.

Harry didn't notice the glances he was getting from girls and women of all ages as Susan led him from shop to shop. His green eyes were incredibly striking, and his face was thin and sculpted, his body thin and wiry with strength, all of which made him excellent eye candy for the girls around him.

They finally decided on a wardrobe based around jeans and t-shirts, as well as a leather jacket that Harry loved on first sight. He refused to allow Mrs. Richards to choose his underwear though, which earned him a chuckle, but he did allow her to choose a few dress shirts and pants for him, as well as a good jacket.

When they arrived back at the Baxter Building Ben was just leaving. "Hey fellas, you get the kid enough clothing Sue? Glad ya didn't try to buy out the store this time."

"Hush you," Sue laughed, "Are you off to see Alicia?"

"Heh, yep, I wanted ta ask her out fer a date this weekend."

Harry grinned, "You go big man. I was thinking of making a protective amulet for Franklin, and if you got a significant other, I'll do the same for her if you want, just tell me what kind of jewelry she wears."

"What will this protective amulet do?" Susan asked, while Ben was coping with the idea that someone might target Alicia because of his relationship with her. He had been so worried about being worthy of her as he was, with his rocky skin and immense strength that he didn't always control, that the idea someone else might hurt her to get to him was worrisome.

"Well, that depends on how much you want them to do. I could make one that creates a shield around the wearer to protect him or her from harm much like your own shields Mrs. Richards, but I was also thinking of a apparition, what you would call teleportation, function that would activate and teleport the wearer to a predetermined safe point if attacked by someone."

"I think that would be excellent for Franklin, we can set the safe point as the Baxter building for now." Susan smiled happily. Annihilus's attack on her son had really rattled her, and this sounded like a fantastic solution. Ben nodded too, looking thoughtful then waved goodbye and left the building.

The rest of that first day Harry spent looking up what he needed to know and what he wanted to do to create the amulet of protection for Franklin.

It turned out Reed was doing the same thing in his own way, creating a stuffed bear companion for his son that had a tracking device and a few other offensive toys built into it. It had very limited intelligence, but was programmed to engage on sight anyone pointing anything resembling a weapon at Franklin. Reed just hoped it would be enough, though he was worried about the powers he saw manifesting in his son.

Harry was able to present the worried parents with the finished amulet the very next day in the form of a small baby watch. Though if you opened it up you would see it was plain metal inside with several runic arrays imbedded in the metal. In the end the defensive array was much like the one embedded in his crisis suit, consisting of two shields one under the other, which would hopefully be able to turn most weapons. This turned out to be the case when Reed fired a laser at a dummy wearing the watch, and everyone was pleased to see that it worked. Harry went back to work and created another small bracelet made of a dozen of his galleons. When Ben found out he wanted to pay Harry back, but Harry waved that off. It wasn't like he didn't have millions of the things after all. Agatha was the only one who was leery of Harry being so open with his talents, but seeing the use he was putting it to she didn't raise a fuss about it.

* * *

Harry was as good as his word in other ways. The day after Franklin received his watch, Reed tried to stay several hours in his labs, ironically going over the information Harry had given him about the Negative Zone, but as soon as two hours had passed Harry pranked him. Reed reached down to hit another key, and suddenly his keyboard began to make farting noises with every letter he hit. Reed tried to mute his computer to no avail and was forced to concede defeat. That was the first and last day he tried to spend too much time in the lab as even replacing the keyboard the next day didn't stop the fart noises, nor did the noises stop at that. After the air siren sound came out from the keyboard he gave up. This pleased his wife no end, and eventually Reed as well, giving him more time with his son and wife.

Nor was he the only one to feel the sting of Harry's pranks. Ben accidently smashed the breakfast table during an argument, and suddenly his meals started to taste like ashes. It went away when he went out and bought another one. Ben didn't complain overmuch as once they went out together Harry used his power to make the yancey street gang that always tried to get a rise out of him trip over their own feet whenever they were on the same street.

Johnny on the other hand found himself with brown hair rather than blond most days, and he and Harry began a mini prank war that only ended three days later when Susan put her foot down. Susan, as the female authority figure, was not pranked by Harry, nor was Agatha. Wyatt was also pranked a few times, but not nearly as often as Johnny or Ben.

For the next week Harry got used to the technology of this world, and did so at a phenomenal pace, surprising Reed and the others. He also got up every day to run with Wyatt, becoming friends with him, Johnny and Ben over the week, and learned a few extra martial arts lessons from the Native American. His off the top comments and inabitly to censor his mouth was funny to all three, though it did at times get him into trouble with other people when he went out with Wyatt, Johnny or Susan.

He even became a decent wingman for Johnny when he went out to party, always able to get him back home though Harry did extract payment in the form of pranks if Johnny was drunk. Despite garnering a lot of feminine interest of his own, Harry didn't meet anyone he was interested in. He didn't really know what he was looking for in a girlfriend, but he didn't find it in the party girls Johnny favored. The blond was also apparently coming off a forced breakup of from his last girlfriend, someone named Crystal, which wasn't doing his own 'mad skills with the birds' any good. In return Johnny gave him driving lessons and was astonished by how fast Harry learned. Harry in fact became an avid driver, and began to look on the internet for the perfect car for him. He also began to look at the gold market, deciding how to use the massive amount of galleons he had and where to do it.

However after a week Harry had a meeting that would change his life and the future of the world forever.

* * *

One evening Harry was lazing about reading a graphic novel in the bath, still loving the ability to bathe and get clean, when the doorbell to the FF suite rang. Harry ignored it for a moment, thinking the others were around to answer it, and thinking it none of his business. However that notion was proven false when Ben's loud voice rang out, carrying easily through his room into the bathroom. "Hey, green-eyes, there's someone who wants ta meet ya out here."

"If they're looking for the chosen one, destined one or anything like that tell them to go away!" Harry replied blandly, turning the page on his graphic novel. He was really enjoying this series, though why the hell Johnny was a fan of it was rather strange. _ Maybe flame boy has hidden depths… nah._

Ben Laughed. "Sorry kid, but they ain't callin' ya anything like that, they just want ta meet ya."

"Fine, I'll be out in a minute." Harry sighed and rose, then changed into a loose shirt and a pair of jeans before exiting his room and following Ben to the living room. He stopped at the doorway, staring at the odd trio that was sitting with the FF. One of them was a bald man in a wheelchair another was a short man drinking a beer next to Ben with a very strange hair style and eyes which warned Harry to be wary of him. The one that drew his attention the most however was a black woman with seemingly natural white hair, perfect skin and a body any woman would cheerfully maim for. Her eyes were a strange pearly color, set into a face that bespoke calm control, but a hint of interest in him, though in what Harry couldn't say.

Harry felt the first stir of interest and opened his mouth to say something when the bald man beat him to it. "Good evening Mr. Potter, my name is professor Xavier, and I have something to talk to you about."

End chapter

* * *

And there we have my second chapter of this story. A bit more of Harry's history given in a way I hope is original and interesting, as well as funny at some points. Harry's past will not be revealed again in a massive info dump like in the first chapter or this one, but he will drop some hints here and there. His way of speaking without thinking first will however get him into some trouble in the next chapter. I debated having him take part in one of the FF's adventures, but decided against it. He will be a strong ally they can call on later though. He has already done things that will have long term ramifications for them – saving their son before Annihilus can force his power to awaken too much, the amulet of protection for Alicia and Franklin.

In terms of enemies Harry will eventually, after moving past what I would call the x-men intro arc, be deeply involved in industry and space so he will face off against many of the alien races that appear in the marvel universe and international villains. The Skrull in particular will be an issue when we get to that point, as will the Brood. He will also have a few enemies on Earth. Apocalypse and Sinister for two, and Dr. Doom on and off, though I have some plans there. He and Tony will also have a friendly rivalry eventually.

Power-wise, another question I've been asked: Harry magically is a step below Dr. Strange, as he doesn't use invocations, which call on mystical entities for aid. He will grow stronger the more magical enemies he faces though (hint, hint).

Don't expect me to get the time frame of everything right, as I will be mixing universe (avengers movies, x-men evolution, marvel proper) like crazy here. I also hope to introduce each girl of the harem in an interesting way.

If anyone has an arc/adventure of the FF or x-men they want me to write Harry into I will consider it, but realizes as time goes on Harry will be changing the marvel universe more and more.


	3. A Wild Card can Change any Game

I can't draw and I would never be able to live with myself if I wrote Harry getting with a fan girl therefore I do not own Marvel or Harry Potter.

Third chapter here, where Harry meets Charles and his group, and Harry's mouth gets him into a bit of trouble.

I have a poll up on my profile for which story I should start after Warriors Way is done, take a look and vote. I would also like to see some PM's supporting one story or another, but they have to actually have some good points in them above and beyond 'that story sounds cool please write it', you have to tell me why it is interesting and why you think I should write it.

Also, I have gotten two reviews which puzzle me (and another from an asshole who I will ignore), that say 'type your review here', did I put that somewhere in the chapters before this and just can't see it or is that them messing up?

good catch on the wrong name agnar and Lord anime it has been corrected

* * *

**Chapter 3 a Wild Card can Change any Game**

Harry looked at Xavier and then back at the black woman. "The goddess looks perfect, but I didn't know they came with their own chaperones and bodyguards in real life."

Xavier looked a little amused at being so ignored, while Logan grunted in ill humor, the trip by plane had not been fun at all, and this punk's cheekiness was getting on his nerves. More there was something off about him, his words seemed lackadaisical, but he had taken one look at the three of them and at him and seemed to tense for a moment before going back to normal. _If the kid was older I'd say he was a veteran, a soldier but with his age…_

Strom on the other hand, despite being almost as irritated by the need to take a commercial airline to California as Logan (she much preferred flying under her own power, so much nicer that way) but her surprise at the comment overrode that. "How did you know I was once worshipped as a goddess?"

Harry's eyebrows rose in surprise. "I didn't actually, was that anything like being called the Chosen One, where you're applauded for something you didn't do and blamed whenever you don't meet their expectations? And who is the name of the goddess if I might ask?"

Strom smiled a little at that. "Much like the latter yes, and my name is Ororo Munroe. But the Chosen One… A title like that makes me think you need to immediately look around for the hidden strings around you. But where did the goddess comment come from then?"

Harry stared at her blankly then let his eyes rove down her body and then back up to her now slightly flushed face. He smirked but before she could take umbrage, he tossed the graphic novel he had been reading to her. "From that actually, you might want to figure out who is using your image, they should really be paying you for the privilege you know."

Ororo reflexively caught the book the emerald eyed young man tossed her then blinked in shock at the image of the woman on the front. Besides the clothing, which she would never be caught dead in, and the markings on her forehead and cheeks, the woman was her to a T. "Ah My Goddess?" She opened the book and began to read, and soon enough was smiling a little at the story within. It was an interesting mix between humor, romance and magic, somewhat childish but still funny. Her lips quirked a little in amusement at finding out her lookalike went around calling herself the goddess of love and using potions on unsuspecting people.

Xavier coughed, trying to bring the conversation back to why he and his friends were here. "Yes, well Mr. Potter, we are not in fact here as chaperones for you and Ms Munroe, but to speak to you." _Though I am surprised at how easily the two fell into a conversation, regardless of how silly it was._ "Tell me, have you noticed anything odd happening around you lately?"

Susan rolled her eyes at the perfect opening Xavier had given their young guest. Harry smirked, and with a bare wave of his hand changed the nearest seat to a stuffed leather chair, and he sat down looking across at the surprised faces of the three newcomers. "No, not really, why do you ask?"

Xavier froze in shock. That looked almost like the reality altering abilities of Wanda Maximoff, but she had been driven insane by her powers and committed to the Vault maximum security prison, the section devoted to the terminally insane and dangerous. _Is he suffering under the same affliction?_ Cautiously he sent out a mental probe, but was shocked to find nothing there. It was as if his mind wasn't even there.

Harry frowned as he felt the mental probe wash over the outside of his invisibility cloak protected mind. The trick was something he had thought up as a unique form of occlumency, and it had given every legelimancer that ran into it fits. What he did was imagine his family's invisibility cloak, enlarge it, then cover his mind, which itself was organized like a house, with it. So far no one had been able to figure out how to get in, but that didn't mean he liked getting mind probed. "You have two seconds to stop trying to probe my mind before I get angry old man." Ororo looked up at that in surprise then askance at Xavier, while Logan merely raised an eyebrow and went back to drinking his beer, but he was tensed for action.

Reed stiffened angrily. "Charles, what do you…"

"I apologize," Xavier said quickly. "I have run into someone else with similar powers before, and she is almost utterly insane, a danger to herself and others around her, I merely wanted to make certain that you were in control of your faculties."

Harry and Reed both subsided. "You've met another magic user who was insane?"

"Magic, um, no… that is your…"

Reed interrupted. "Actually Charles it is magic. He and our nanny, Agatha, are both magic users. I understand Harry's ability in transfiguration is rather unusually advanced, but Agatha assures us that it is indeed a magical power rather than a mutant power."

Xavier looked nonplussed and glanced at his old friend for confirmation and Reed nodded. Harry laughed. "Is that what you're here for? I assure you my magic has nothing to do with any strangeness in my genes. Well," he added judiciously, "it does, but not in the way you're thinking. Magic may be in my blood but not in my genes as you think of it, indeed having a magical core where I come from is only the beginning. Wizards have to go to school to learn most of the spells I use." _Or… something happens, what was it? Hmm, better think about that later, it could explain this insane magic user baldy mentioned._

Xavier recovered his poise and shook his head. The magic was interesting, and something he might pursue later to help young Wanda, but not right now. "Nevertheless, that isn't what I meant. We, my friends and I, have a computer which allows us to detect mutants throughout the world, and it alerted us to your presence. This magic ability notwithstanding have you noticed anything else odd?"

Harry shook his head. "No sorry, I think you've got the wrong guy."

"Would you be able to tell if he was a mutant by a DNA scan?" Reed asked. He had of course scanned their newest ally when he moved in with them, just to check for any diseases or anything else. Harry had a surprisingly low amount of radiation after spending six years in the Negative Zone, but that was merely surprising, not something for alarm, especially given the abilities of his crisis suit.

"Yes, though we wouldn't be able to say what his powers are from something like that." Reed nodded and led Xavier to his lap to look over Harry's DNA scan.

Ororo, seeing everyone had calmed down, went back to what she was reading. Harry smirked and after a moment Hedwig came in, carrying the next graphic novel in the series.

She landed on the table and everyone looked at her. Ororo looked at the magnificent creature, then at the graphic novel it was holding carefully in its claws and smiled. "Thank you my dear." She raised a hand, and after the bird did not immediately move away, began to stroke the snowy owl's plumage gently. "You are truly beautiful. I take it you have something to do with Mr. Potter?"

The owl nodded imperiously nipping at her fingers for a moment as if saying 'He has something to do with **me**, get it right' before simply sitting there and enjoying the attention. Harry laughed. "Her name's Hedwig, and yes she's my familiar, and yes she is beautiful, and she knows it too." Hedwig clacked her beak at him and Storm chuckled.

Harry smiled surprisingly as Hedwig leaned into the black woman's fingers. "She likes you, she doesn't normally let other people touch her like that." Hedwig precked at him for a moment, then he went on. "She says you smell like wind, rain and crisp morning air for some reason. Care to share with the class why that is?"

Ororo smirked a little. "I think I'll keep that a surprise for now Mr. Potter. Every girl needs some secrets after all." Logan's eyebrows rose in surprise at the slightly flirtatious tone, but he went back to his beer quietly. If he was going to have to get back onto a commercial plane by god he was going to be buzzed before doing it.

At this point Reed and Xavier came back. "Well Mr. Potter, as I expected you do indeed carry the mutant gene, I can even show it to you on the scan if you like." Harry nodded at this and Reed and Xavier spent several minutes explaining the DNA scan to him and pointing out the relevant parts. After he understood that yes something odd was there Harry leaned back, looking at Xavier shrewdly. "Alright, now that we have ascertained that you actually do have a reason for being here, make your spiel Professor Baldy."

Logan stirred angrily at that, and Storm looked up from absently stroking Hedwig's chest and reading her graphic novel. "Hey kid, treat Chuck with respect, he's here to help you."

Harry was unmoved by this, his eyes and face remaining calm, emerald eyes as cool as the stone they resembled. "Respect is earned, and I've learned in my life to never give it blindly. So as I said, say your piece."

Xavier however merely smiled. This young man may be opinionated, untrusting and defensive, but there was no hint of malice in him. "Very well Mr. Potter. Have you heard about the growing 'mutant problem'?" Harry nodded impatiently and Xavier went on. "More mutants are appearing all the time, and many people both normal humans and mutants think we are the next step in the evolution of our race. I really have no idea about that concept, but I want relations between mutants and humans to be peaceful, to protect both sides from the more antagonistic groups of the other. To that end I lead a small group of young mutants who I have brought together to help train in their powers to help defend themselves and other mutants and normal humans if necessary from those who would prey on them. I would like you to join us in our endeavor to ensure that peace between mutant kind and humanity comes about."

Harry smiled wryly. "The idea sounds nice and all, but how exactly do you do this? And how old are your child soldiers?"

That got through to Xavier who started angrily but Harry waved his anger away. "Don't bother oh bald one, I don't really have a problem with child soldiers, I was one after all." That made all three of the guests look at him in surprise, though Logan merely looked at him then nodded grimly and looked away. The kid looked like a soldier, and his eyes told the tale better than any words. Harry then briefly described his time in the magical world, and how he had led a counter terrorist team against a supremacist terrorist group.

Xavier smiled, though inside he was worried. This sounded perfect, Harry had experience in precisely the kind of cause they were fighting, but the methods he described, killing his enemies rather than capturing them… "Well then you know precisely what kind of cause the X-men stand for, and my X-men range from 17 to 19."

Harry nodded. "Well that makes them older than I was when I had to make a stand. Still, I don't know if I want to sign up full time with you, even if it does turn out I have a mutant power. I was the leader of my little group, so taking orders is something I'm not certain I ever want to do again. Then too, I have plans I want to follow on my own. I want to continue educating myself on the tech of this world, and its history. I'm still looking into why there isn't any uniform magical government in this world, and what that could mean in the long run, as well as recent world history."

"All of the X-men go to the local high school, Bayville high, and we could easily enroll you there to continue your education."

"Hell no!" Harry growled holding his hands up in an X shape. "I had enough of schools at Hogwarts and before. Besides, when I was in school before going to Hogwarts I always learned too quickly for main stream schooling to be much help anyway."

Charles sighed. His idea to foster friendships between Harry and his children through a shared curriculum wouldn't work obviously. Ah well, at least he wasn't rejecting Xavier's dream outright. "Very well, you can stay with us in the mansion so long as you can do some work around the place to pay for lodging and food." If he wasn't going to school then Xavier would treat him like an adult.

Harry smirked and shared an amused glance with Reed, who knew about the monstrous amount of gold coins he had in his luggage. But for now he would wait and see if he could trust Xavier enough to tell him about that. _Frankly the bald guy is giving me a little too many Dumbldork vibes for me to be happy about. Still we'll see his methods and how his kids act before making any decisions about that. Idealists are fantastic, but not if they sacrifice their own people to those ideals, like 'don't kill the enemy who's trying to kill you'. Sometimes that isn't necessary, but sometimes it is, if he can tell the difference, or has trained his troops to do it then I might join up in full_.

Still for now he replied. "Well I could be a cook. I can cook pretty well just ask Mr. and Mrs. Richards." Both of them nodded, Harry really was a good cook, and this made Ororo smile. She and Jean were the only ones who could cook in the mansion, and Jean was still learning. Kitty could only make cookies, and was uninterested in learning how to do more, while their newest female addition, Rogue couldn't cook at all without nearly burning the house down. And as for her nephew and the other boys they were just hopeless. "I can also teach tactics and strategy, I assume the lovely Ms. Munroe and the hairy one are teachers?"

Ororo's lips twitched at the compliment and she nodded. "Yes, I teach history and languages. Every X-man needs to learn to speak a different language every year they stay with us."

Logan smirked at the boy most of his earlier irritation gone with the knowledge the punk had been in a war which explained his attitude. "Phys-ed and hand to hand combat green eyes, and maintenance on the mansion and the vehicles we use too. And my name's Logan not hairy one."

Harry smirked at him, already seeing his next target for his pranks, but he would wait until he moved in to start up on that. "Well, when do you want to leave, if I do have a mutant power I should learn what it is and how to control it as quickly as possible."

Xavier smiled. "Excellent, we have tickets home this evening." Logan and Storm both groaned internally at the idea of getting back on the damn plane, but Harry nodded and left with Hedwig on his shoulder to go and pack.

Susan followed him and she and Ben stood in the doorway, watching him pack the clothing she had gotten him into his trunk. "Are you sure about this Harry, I thought you said you didn't want to be a hero."

Harry nodded. "You all don't need my help here, but these kids of baldy's, they will need help, help to figure out this isn't a game and help surviving. I can teach them that, regardless if I have a mutant power or not." He smirked. "Besides both of those guys are just screaming 'prank me, prank me Harry' to my Marauder senses."

Ben guffawed and Susan rolled her eyes. "Fine, but you need to say goodbye to Wyatt, Johnny and Franklin before you can leave. And you have to promise to stay in touch." Susan was going to miss the young man. His quirky sense of humor had lightened up the atmosphere considerably, as had his insistence on getting Reed out of his labs, something she was incredibly thankful for.

Harry twitched a little at the mention of Franklin. The little mite had really saved his bacon, albeit accidentally, and the two had become close friends. Saying goodbye was going to be a wrench but Harry felt this was something he just had to do. "Yeah, I'll do it. Oh and don't worry about Mr. rubber-band going back to his workaholic ways, the pranks I've placed in his labs won't disappear for months, well not unless… nah, won't jinx it."

Susan nodded and Ben gripped the younger man's shoulder. "I'll miss ya kid, you take the ego out of flame-head so well, ya saved Franky, and ya gave my girl Alicia that amulet, ain't no way I'll forget that."

Harry reached up and gripped the rocky man's arm. "Heh, don't worry about me Ben, I'm too tricky to kill. But if you all ever need my help, don't hesitate to call alright?"

Susan nodded and led the way to the baby room, where Harry tried to explain to Franklin that he was going away. This caused a bit of blubbering but Agatha adroitly drew her charges attention to a few new toys before Franklin could really get going, and Harry bussed her cheek in reply and left quickly.

Johnny and Wyatt had come home and the three young men spent a few minutes talking over some beers while Ben and Logan did the same with some harder liqueur. After about an hour though Storm came and got them both. With one last firm handshake with Wyatt and Johnny, and promising to call if he ever came upon a girl named Crystal in his travels, they parted.

Reed waited by the doorway with his old friend. The two of them and Ben had met a few years ago at a convention about the changing global economy and what it meant for world peace. He wasn't exactly happy with how Charles had tried to use his power on Harry, but after the situation with Wanda was explained to him he understood. He also realized that Harry could do more good with the X-men then he could here with them. And if they ever needed his help, well, that was one of the things Reed was standing there to give him. "Harry, we'll all miss you but I think this is something you need to do. Yet before you go I have a few going away presents for you."

He handed the young man a small laptop of his own design in a travel case, which included several things that wouldn't be out on the market to the general public for several months yet. Though, as he had helped with the programming Tony Stark already had some of them. "First a laptop, I think you'll find it up to anything you want to do with a computer for a long time." Then he passed a strange looking card over to him. "And this is an emergency communication card. If we ever need your help the corners of this will start glowing red, and the whole thing will start vibrating." Harry opened his mouth, looked at Ms Munroe and then shut it, and Reed rolled his eyes. _Thank goodness for small mercies._ "If you ever need help, press the little sphere in the center and our own cards will react similarly."

Harry nodded and gripped the older man's hand firmly. "Thanks for everything Mr. Richards. I'll keep in touch don't worry, and I hope if you ever need my help you won't hesitate to call." Reed nodded, while Xavier, who still had only the vaguest idea of what Harry was capable of, raised an eyebrow in surprise.

With that the quartet was off. Logan looked at Hedwig, who was perched easily on Harry's shoulder. "You got a cage for your bird Harry?"

Hedwig hissed angrily hunching forward, intent on launching herself at the hairy man and gauging his eyeballs out for that suggestion, but her Harry's fingers stilled her, gently stroking her plumage. "Sorry Logan, I don't ever put Hedwig into a cage if I've got a choice. I'll just let my lovely girl find her own way to wherever the hell we're going?" He ended the sentence as a question, eyebrow cocked inquiringly.

Xavier shrugged, wondering how intelligent the bird really was, and if it too had some magic powers to let it fly across the entire country. "We're going to upstate New York near Bayville if that means anything."

"It doesn't," Harry said happily. "But I'm certain Hedwig will find me there easily enough." Hedwig precked affirmatively and launched herself from his shoulder as they exited the Baxter Building. "Well that's that, shall we go?" Logan shrugged and led the way to their car.

* * *

The Fantastic Four was the world's first super hero team and were widely acclaimed as heroes throughout the world, but that didn't mean everyone in the American government or the United Nations trusted them. The fact was they had powers and abilities that made them dangerous and as such they were under observation. The organization that was doing the observing had been created to deal with super-powered, extra dimensional and extra solar dangers. While they were barely up and running yet, they had some of the best spies in the world already working for them. One of whom, Natasha Romanova had been assigned to keep tabs on the Fantastic Four. She kept an alias in San Francisco of an upscale party girl living off her parent's money, just the kind of girl that could party with Johnny Storm and not raise any suspicions. As such she was well aware of Harry Potter, but hadn't discovered anything unusual about him, except for his lack of interest in her and other party girls, his emerald green eyes and that she had no clue where he came form or why he was so friendly so quickly with Johnny and the rest of the FF.

Now however she saw him leave the Baxter Building with two people she had read about and one she knew personally. Logan had been many things in his time, and soldier and spy were among them. They had crossed paths more than once, before and after she defected from Russia. Xavier too was known as a psychologist who specialized in trying to help and diagnose mental problems in super powered individuals. And Ororo Munroe, with her monstrously powerful mutant ability to control the weather was known to SHIELD as well. _So it stands to reason that Emerald Eyes is a mutant too. I wonder what his power is. Better radio this in. If they're going to that school of Xavier's we'll need an operative in place to watch Mr. Potter, just in case._

However, the Russian native wasn't the only one watching them.

* * *

Mystique hated two things in her life. One was the fact she had her son stolen from her because of her association with her cause, that of mutant survival and supremacy. The second was failure, and in this mission she had failed to get close to the new mutant, failed to figure out what his power was, and she was now looking at a woman who reminded her of an earlier failure. She routinely took the form of a crow or pigeon on spy missions like this and she was perched on a rooftop two buildings away from where the target of her ire was standing in a window watching the entrance to the Baxter Building. She and Natasha had cross paths before, when Mystique was trying to find where the mutant Omega Red was kept in suspended animation. Natasha had foiled her attempts though thankfully had never realized that Mystique was a mutant, but the loss to a normal homo-sapien stuck in her craw.

More her inability to figure out what this Harry Potter's power was irritated her. He never seemed to do anything odd outside the Baxter building (which was one of the few places in the world where her abilities could not gain her access, the security was programmed to recognize mutants) except maybe his ability to sober Johnny Storm up enough to get him home. There had also been one time where he seemed immune to the fire users power, but that could have been her imagination as it only lasted a second before Johnny powered down. And of course there was his pet owl, who frankly was beyond bizarre, she was far too intelligent and quick to be a normal bird. The young man too had insane reflexes and the eyes of a soldier, someone who had killed and been in life and death situations, but that was all she had been able to find out. _It seems as if I'll have to let Charles do the leg work on this one. _ She briefly thought of doing something permanent to the Russian bitch, but after a moment decided not to. Instead she took to the sky and was nearly plucked out of the air by Hedwig, who flew right before her beak her talons slashing at her.

Mystique cawed loudly in shock, banking away and into an alleyway below them. Hedwig circled for a moment then flew up into the air disappearing against the backdrop of the sun. Mystique changed forms first to her natural form and then to a nondescript business man but stayed put watching the sky warily. _Yes that bird is definitely strange, and very dangerous. That would have been embarrassing as hell, losing an eye to a bird!_ After a moment she calmed down and made her way out of the alley to hail a passing taxi.

* * *

High above her, well out of a normal humans range of vision, Hedwig circled lazily watching the strange shapeshifter below her. She hadn't really been aiming to kill the crow of course, crows did not make good eating, and she had learned to never eat any bird that lived in a city, they were flying cesspits of disease. But she had noticed its odd behavior and wanted to see what would happen, though watching the creature transform into a blue two-leg was very odd. After the two leg got into one of those yellow moving things she swooped away. Her harry would want to know about this.

* * *

For Charles and the others flying in a plane was mundane and boring. For Harry it was a new experience and one he enjoyed for the first hour or so until they were too high to see the ground below them. After that he turned to his fellow travelers. "So tell me more about this school of yours, and the students too. Oh and don't worry about anyone listening in, I've used a notice-me-not spell to cover us all, nothing we say will register on anyone else's senses."

Charles sitting across the aisle from him raised an eyebrow at that ability, but gave him a brief description of the school grounds and the Danger Room in particular. Harry listened intently, impressed by what technology could do, but not over much. After all the danger room sounded like a variation on the room of requirement, which he, Padma and Luna had spent a month figuring out the spells and runic arrays for. "And the students, anything you want to tell me about them?"

Charles smiled a little mischievously. "Actually I'd rather not tell you anything about them just yet. I'd like to see you using your magic powers against them in a match, that will give us an idea of your fighting skills. Then too, I think the kids have gotten a little too big for their britches lately, fighting someone such as yourself would be good for them, win or lose."

Harry smirked at him. "Alright, I can do that, but how rough can I be on them?"

Logan answered him from where he was sitting next to Charles. He would have preferred to sit next to Storm, but the girl snored and they were all going to sleep most of this flight anyway. "As rough as you like Harry, just don't kill them, we've got a first rate med center and the Danger Room will 'mission kill' you if you set it to do so given specific stuff happening."

Harry nodded and leaned back. Ororo looked at him for a moment then asked, "So what was life like in your home dimension?"

"Hmm, in a word old fashioned. The wizarding world was incredibly backward in many ways, and in others incredibly advanced, but they didn't do anything with their advancements. They had a room much like your danger room at the school I went to yet until my New Marauders came around none of them even realized what it really was. And don't get me started on their government, an edifice that had no purpose any longer but to keep itself going, it was so horribly corrupt none of them even realized the corruption was bad anymore, it was just the way of things."

Ororo winced. "That sounds horrible."

"You don't know the half of it. In my third year the minister of magic, who really was more of a dictator than an elected official with checks and balances, 'checks and balances' what are those, dangerous foreign ideas'. Anyway a man escaped from their prison, which only had one security setting, maximum and the idiot had the great idea of stationing its guards, sould sucking monsters around the school. And while people complained about it, no one actually did anything, not even when a few students nearly lost their lives."

"So does that mean you believe in the existence of a soul?" Logan asked. He was pretty skeptical on the idea himself, he'd seen far too much to believe in any kind of eternal afterlife.

"I don't believe in much but the soul is real." Harry replied firmly. "The dementors sucked something out of their victims, something that they needed to live. Without it the body simply wasted away. Wizards had also developed a spell which killed the soul, a vile thing that the Death Eaters, the group I was fighting used very often. Just as often as other, even more terrible curses."

Seeing the thousand mile stare he had Ororo paused in voicing her next question and changed the subject. The quartet talked for about an hour, with all three of the others noticing that Harry really seemed to be extremely spontaneous in what he said, never stopping to think about what was coming out of his mouth until after he spoke it. Eventually all three from the institute decided to get some rest. Harry however pulled out the laptop Reed had given him and began to study this world's history again.

* * *

After a long flight and a barely shorter drive in an admittedly comfortable limo the group arrived at a massive mansion. It looked to be three stories tall, with two wings and a main section, and Harry could see an arboretum on the third floor in one of the wings from here. "So this is your institute professor? Nice digs." Charles nodded, happy to be home as Logan pulled up to the front and they all got out. He sent out a psychic message to the youngsters asking them to come down to the foyer, and buy the time they entered, they were all there waiting for them.

Scott Summers, a fit, athletic looking teen with ruby tinted glasses over his eyes stepped forward. "Welcome back professor." Charles nodded at him but Harry was taking in this first glimpse of the kids that might be his new team. Behind them the others took in the first sight of this newcomer. Tall, whipcord thin, with the build of a martial artist of track star, with the greenest eyes any of them had seen. A few of them looked between him and the redhead, trying to figure out if their eye were the same color and eventually deciding that the newcomers were deeper and darker, more emerald than green.

They looked like normal kids for the most part, well except for the blue demon looking dude. The one who had greeted baldy looked as if he had a stick stuck up his ass but that could be rectified, and the blue demon guy looked like a prankster, with mischievous eyes and a warm smile on his face. The last one, who he assumed was Evan, the nephew Ororo had mentioned, looked like a cross between a jock and a skater punk. The girls were a mixed group too. One looked gothic, dressed in black with black lipstick and gloves. The next one looked a little preppy, but her smile was just as welcoming as the pranksters. The last however was striking. Fit body with c-cup breasts and magnificent legs hinting at what she would look like in a few years, with hair so red it matched the most magnificent sunset he'd ever seen. Eyes almost as green as Harry's own, and something else, something that Harry felt calling out to him. The one thing all the girls had in common was they were all beautiful. "Damn is being hot part of having the mutant gene?" All the girls blushed in various shades at the compliment from the handsome young man while Ororo rolled her eyes. "That's got to be the real reason why people are so worried about mutants it's not that they're afraid of you, they're just jealous of your good looks."

Ororo shook her head as Kitty and Rouge both blushed further, though Jean had shrugged off her initial embarrassment quickly and was now studying the newcomer intently. "Must you say the first thing that comes into your head?"

"No, I don't, I didn't when we met after all. If I had I would have told you that seeing you made me think of scented candles, oil, silk ties and sex wilder than anything I have ever attempted."

He said it so matter-of-factly that it took a moment to register, but when it did Logan burst into laughter and the others all gaped at him, either in surprise or shock, while Spyke began to growl moving forward. Storm's reaction however was the most telling. She first blushed rosily, then her eyes narrowed in anger and her hands crackled with lightning.

She turned but Harry was already gone laughing as he ducked out the door. "You'll never take me alive!"

Ororo snarled and floated off the ground and after him. "I don't want you alive, I want you to fry you irritating man! Stand still and take your punishment!"

Evan blinked in shock as his normally calm and controlled aunt lost it completely. "A-auntie?"

Charles too blinked in surprise. "That was… unexpected."

"Oh please," Logan said, recovering from his laughing fit. "It's just more flirting done differently, the two have been doing it since they met."

Jean got over her shock at the younger mans blatant come on and shook her head. "Either he's got a death wish or he's just insane, which is it professor?"

Charles shrugged. "A bit of both perhaps, though I understand young Harry isn't quite used to being around people again just yet, more than that you will learn later as it is his story to tell."

"And-er, is he a new recruit sir?" Scott asked. He was a little, okay a lot, leery of having someone that random and uncontrolled on the team.

"That is something that will be decided after a little three part match between all of you and Harry in the danger room. Why don't you all get ready, I'm certain that by the time you get your suits on Ororo will be done with him one way of the other."

Something about that statement freaked Spyke out a little, but he nodded and following the others as they went upstairs to change. Scott paused for a moment before following them. "Can I ask what his powers are professor?"

Charles shook his head. "You all will have to find that out on your own, just as he will with you. Information wise, this is an even field, the better to see how he reacts to things."

Scott frowned, but nodded and walked off. Logan looked down at his boss grinning. "I got fifty bucks says Green Eyes will wipe the floor with them three out of three, you in?"

Charles shook his head and moved off. "Your faith in our charge's abilities is truly touching." Logan shrugged unrepentantly and followed him.

* * *

Outside Harry was chuckling as he dodged around, ducking under gusts of wind and lightning blasts as above them the sky darkened and roiled. "Ah, so that's your power Ororo!"

"Stay still you little rabbit!" Ororo growled from behind him, trying to get close enough to hit him, but failing miserably. Harry had all the speed and agility of a mongoose, and was just as hard to hit. Above her the air condensed, and suddenly she realized her emotions were affecting the local weather patterns. It was a distant thought however as right in front of her a massive lightning strike came down out of the clouds to slam into Harry. She gasped in horror, she hadn't actually been aiming to hit him, just scare him.

He stumbled, but twisted as he fell to the ground, hands automatically reaching out to Ororo's behind him and to her surprise he didn't seem injured, and she found herself stumbling forward into his chest, both of them falling to the ground.

They lay there for a moment then Harry chuckled, sending a rumble through his chest where Ororo was leaning against it. "Well that was fun."

Ororo pushed her upper body off him, shaking her head and regaining control of her emotions. With a thought she sent the clouds above them away, returning the area to its normal weather pattern. "You have a very odd idea of fun."

"Meh, you'll get used to it." Harry smirked, putting his hands behind his head. "So is that your power, flying and using lightning?"

"Quite a bit more actually I can control all kinds of weather, which I use to fly and the lightning blasts are my normal offensive weapon. I haven't met anyone else they didn't work on entirely like you however. Is that from a spell you cast?" She looked up at the sky above them, making certain that the storm she had inadvertently called into being had dispersed.

Harry shook his head. "No, it's more of a family trait. My last name is Potter, you know, as in pottery. My family developed lightning attacks spells so developed an immunity to them at the same time. But having to watch your emotions like that must be bloody awful. Tell you what, I'll see if I can make a ward or something to cut that connection for you, that is, if you want me to?"

Ororo looked down at him, naked hope on her face for a moment. Ever since she had learned of the connection between her emotions and the weather around her she had to control her emotions lest she create untold destruction. To not have to do that anymore was a dream come true. "That would be wonderful thank you." Suddenly she realized the position they were in, and she blushed as she felt something stir beneath her. She was no virgin, she knew what was even now reacting to her presence on his lap, and it was both worrying and flattering at the same time. "W-we should get back."

Harry smiled, looking appreciatively up at her gorgeous face past the rise of her EE cup breasts in her plain business suit, amazed at how firm they looked. "I don't know I rather like it here."

Ororo pushed down with her hands, getting off of his waist though not before taking a moment to feel his hard muscles appreciatively. "Are you always this forward?"

"No" Harry answered honestly. "I'm usually much less outgoing, but spending five years in the negative Zone all alone has removed most of my inhibitions. Don't worry though, if you don't like me flirting with you just say so and I'll stop."

Ororo paused, looking at his mesmerizing emerald eyes and very decent body, as well as remembering how easily he could make her laugh, and then his offer to make her an amulet that would allow her to express her emotions more freely. Then too he was simply an interesting young man, who, though younger than her by several years, had a hidden maturity behind his sense of fun that belied his age. "I wouldn't say I dislike your flirting, just, please tone it down a little. Especially around the students please."

"Got it, no mentally scarring your students by treating you like an actual woman rather than a genderless teacher." Harry actually saluted and she laughed shaking her head.

"You are incorrigible, but yes please be careful, especially with my nephew's mind. I don't think Evan could handle that particular revelation." Harry nodded and the two walked back to the mansion, with Harry telling her some stories about the pranks he had played on the Fantastic Four, which had her nearly in stitches despite her habitual control as they reached the front door.

* * *

Inside the danger room the X-men were already preparing for this. Cyclops took charge as usual and directed them all into position around the cityscape the room had created. "Alright we don't know anything about this guy's powers, so we should prepare for everything. Hide around the center square and as soon as he's in the square hit him hard."

Spyke nodded cracking his knuckles and already bringing out his bone spikes and moving into the ground level of one of the stores around the square. "I get first crack at him, no way can I let him get away with saying stuff like that to auntie O."

"Like, I don't think she needs your help to deal with that," Kitty said. "She seemed to have it well in hand."

Rogue smirked. "It was nice tah see miss calm and collected lose it like that though. Probably good for her too."

Jean smirked a little, but refused to be drawn into the conversation. Instead she took the lookout position, wondering why the older boy's eyes had been so compelling for some reason before shaking it off.

Nightcrawler waited by Scott in another upper story.

Minutes passed, and they all heard the door to the Danger Room open, then nothing. After a few minutes Spyke growled out. "Where the hell is he?"

Jean looked around from her position on the roof of the tallest building in the simulation but didn't see anything. "I don't see him."

A voice by her ear made her jump. "My names Harry, Red, remember it."

Jean turned quickly lashing out with her power sending several kinetic blasts shaped like knives at where the voice had come from, but suddenly felt the concrete roof below her disappear. She fell forward, and suddenly a bright red light smacked into her forehead. "Stupefy!"

The redhead collapsed comatose and Harry nodded, then jumped off the roof to his next target.

Below Scott was already shouting orders. 'He's circled behind us and taken out Marvel Girl, regroup on my position!"

This did not help Rogue however. She had been in the building next to Jean and she found herself in sight of Harry but not close enough to use her own powers. "Sorry Goth chick. Bombarda!" Harry pointed a finger at the ground before her and it exploded sending asphalt and concrete flying everywhere, smashing into her and flinging her away. Her limp body smashed against another building and Harry shot a Stupefy at her for good measure.

Spyke took this time to get in close, his arms bristling with bone spikes, and he hurled several of them at Harry as he closed. Harry waved a hand at the approaching projectiles "Wingardium Leviosa!" they shot upward and around him, catching Kurt as he teleported behind him. Kurt tried to bamf away, but the projectiles still hit him, slowing him down enough for Harry to grab him with an "accio" and then with a "Repulso" send him flying into Spyke.

Scott made his appearance at this point, blasting away with his optic beams from his position at a window of a nearby building. Harry ducked, then ducked again and waved his hands at the buildings foundation. "Bombarda Maxima!" A massive explosion slammed into the building disintegrating the first floor and tumbling the rest into a heap, taking Scott with it.

Kitty tried to make a stand at that point, but Harry turned to her, head cocked, taking in her see through, not quite there form. "Are you some kind of ghost?" He pointed a finger at her and a web of varicolored energy pinned her to the ground. "Ah so that does work on you huh?" Kitty growled but she couldn't escape or move, and was forced to watch as the new guy went around collecting her disabled friends and piled them up next to her before releasing her.

A few silent episkeys and two revivifies brought the kids back to life and a varied amount of health. Harry shook his head. "Alright kiddies, do I need to point out how many ways you fucked up here?"

Scott shook his head, looking a little grim and a lot chagrined. "I don't think that's necessary. We were cocky and we reacted too slowly, we were too spread out to begin with and once you attacked we all reacted like individuals."

Harry smiled, inwardly groaning as the beam user missed the most glaring mistakes. "Those were some of your mistakes yes, and we'll go over the others later. I was told to fight you lot three times, so let's see if you learned anything from this. You have ten minutes before I attack again." With that he faded away, causing Kitty to gasp and the others to look on in shock.

* * *

Scott rubbed his face in frustration through his mask. "Does anyone have any idea what his powers are?"

Rogue felt at her ribs for a moment wincing. "Well he can make stuff explode, that's what he did to me, and he can apparently go invisible."

Jean held her head in her hands. "I didn't get to see anything he snuck up on me and took me out too fast. Kurt, Spyke, you two worked together any ideas?" _Other than the fact he handled us with kid gloves the entire time, that's rather humiliating. He didn't even bother 'killing' us, just used this whole episode as a learning experience._

"I think he might be a telekinetic" Spyke said seriously, with Kurt nodding along with him. "That's the only way to explain all the things he can do. He grabbed all the spikes I threw at him and used them to pin Kurt in place, then grabbed him and threw him at me."

"I don't know any way a telekinetic could turn invisible or make things explode," Jean said dubiously.

"Maybe he learned how to bend light around him or something." Scott replied.

Kitty though was still skeptical. "Like, how do you explain the thing he hit me with then? And those sounded awfully like spells he was spouting."

Scott shook his head, taking control of the conversation. "We don't have time for flights of fancy. Alright, if he's a telekinetic he'll want to keep us at range. This time we stick together, move around and roam the city, hunt him down rather than wait for him to come to us. Kitty, use your powers to pin him in place, Jean, Evan and I will keep him occupied form range, then Kurt you get Rogue close enough to use her powers to take him out. Jean keep us all in contact with your telepathic powers as soon as we set out, that way he won't know what we're planning." Everyone nodded, though Jean was still worried. For just a moment she though she saw something moving out of the corner of her eye, but when she turned to concentrate on it, it was gone, and she shrugged and followed the others.

* * *

Harry shook his head, having observed the entire exchange. Not once had he said he wouldn't be around, they had just assumed it, like this was a game where he had to play by the rules or something. Now he waited as the kids, and that was what they were, just kids playing at heroes, they didn't have the experience or… it was hard to describe, but they didn't think in the right way, nor did they take enough time to do so. Still at least their formation was decent enough.

Ahead of him the redhead once again turned as if she had noticed something and he made a mental note that notice-me-not and concealment spells didn't seem to work as well as they should on telepaths. _So she's a telepath and telekinetic, that's a damn deadly combination if I give her time to get set. Let's not do that._

Harry waved at the front of their column, this time not bothering to verbalize the spells, and an explosion ripped the ground up in front of them. They reacted quickly, and this time as a group, but he concentrated and the debris from the explosions suddenly transformed into a pride of lions that immediately charged them. Another wave and a dozen more charged them from the other end.

"Wh-what the hell!" Spyke yelled in fright, letting loose with several bone spears, which sailed through the ones charging the back of their column. "Hey, these are fake!"

Scott blasted the first few with his eye beams, barking orders they were just the wrong orders. "The ones at the front are the real threat, Jean with me, everyone else keep an eye out, this is almost certainly a feint. Watch out for him trying to collapse the buildings on us!"

Harry disguised himself as one of the lions and charged forward with the group that was illusory. Jean caught his movement out of the corner of his eye and somehow saw through his illusion but before she could shout a warning he was right between her and Kitty. A hand lashed out letting loose with "Fulgur!" at the ghost girl, and she shrieked as the lightning struck her before she could phase.

His other hand waved "repulso!" and Jean braced herself against the ground, not flying away as he had intended. So instead he got in close grabbing her arm and turning her to use her as a shield against Scott's beams as he turned. Jean cried out in pain, unable to concentrate through the pain to use her powers, but Harry raised a shield around them both which took the rest of the beams strength, then almost gently applied a choke hold to the redhead. "Sorry," he whispered, as she succumbed to unconsciousness once more.

That done he let the shield in place but teleported away, then with an Accio spell grabbed Scott's feet out from under him. He smashed down face first, followed swiftly by a Stupefy to keep him down.

That left Nightcrawler, Rogue and Spyke. Harry created even more lions and sent them after Spike, who went down under the pile of them and then teleported away again, playing tag with Nightcrawler who was carrying Rogue, still trying to stick to the original plan. Harry shook his head then started to cast spells at the ground first creating water then freezing it. The ground became too slick for Nightcrawler to keep his feet the next time he bamfed in close, and Harry took the hesitation this caused to cast a reducto at his feet. The resultant blast knocked him off his feet and a follow up stupefy put him down for the count.

Rogue however had jumped free just in time, and Harry warded off her attempts to grab him as he set a small bombarda off behind her, causing her to stumble and cry out in pain before a pointblank stupefy took her out of action too. Harry sighed, looking around at the wreckage of the team of kids and shook his head. "I know you three are watching this, one more time then these kids are going back to school. This is just sad."

* * *

Logan growled from where he sat at the controls of the danger room. "I agree, that was just awful. Their ability to adapt and improvise is pure crap." Ororo didn't say anything, worried for her nephew and the others.

"I think you're being overly hard on them Logan" Charles replied. "It's true they could be more flexible, but they have no idea about his abilities. With that limitation I think they are doing remarkably well, and at the same time learning a valuable lesson about underestimating their opponents and their own pride impacting their decisions."

Logan shook his head. "Chuck, you're not getting it, he hasn't thrown anything at them that they couldn't overcome if they reacted as a team and tried to improvise, instead they try to stick to plans that are FUBARed from the moment they make contact and they're letting him dictate everything, all the momentum is his." Charles shrugged noncommittally.

* * *

After gathering the kids together, Harry went about healing them, starting with the one called Kitty, forcing a bit of healing potion between her lips. As she woke up she started to spasm and whimper from the electric shock he had given her. A calm hand on her forehead though calmed her down. "Easy, curly one, you're alright, just wait a second okay." As she blearily opened her eyes the pain began to fade slowly. She looked up and saw that the older boy was going around helping her other friends, starting with Spyke after he was done with her, then Rogue.

Scott was the next to wake up, and hearing Jean moan in pain he looked over and saw her lying nearby bruised and battered. "Jean!" Ignoring his own wounds he ran over to her, and was appalled to see that her chest, barely covered by the remnants of her uniform, was red and heavily blistered. "Okay that's, it, this training exercise is over! We have injured people down here who need immediate medical attention!"

Rogue grunted irritably she massaged her forehead while Harry worked on her back, using something to get rid of the cuts on her back. "And what are we chopped liver?" Not once had Scott looked away from Jean to see how the rest of his team was faring.

Harry finished healing her back and smirked a little. "Happens often does it?"

"Ya got's no idea." The southerner muttered. "Scotts always treats little miss perfect with kid gloves." She really did want to be angry with this guy for the butt kicking he was giving them, but at the moment she just didn't have enough energy to do it.

Logan's voice came from the ceiling in answer to Scott's announcement. "You don't get to say stuff like that in a real fight kid, if I was Harry I wouldn't be bothering healing you as much as he is, you lot got one more round to go before you can quit."

"But…" Scott protested then was interrupted as Jean began to shake her head from where she was laying on the ground.

She waved off his hand and sat up, then looked down and covered herself with her hands, appalled by the amount of skin she was showing, and a little annoyed that Scott hadn't tried to cover her up, instead just standing there ogling her. "L-logan's right, we were told to treat this as if it was real, we can't just back off when we get hurt."

A large formless shirt fell out of nowhere onto her head, and she reflexively reached up to pull it off. "Well said Red, though I won't force you to go around without a shirt or anything like that. I'd recommend getting a tougher uniform or something in the future though."

Jean eyebrow twitched at the nickname but she pulled the conjured shirt over her head, wincing as moving aggravated the burns on her chest. "Thank god for small mercies."

'Heh, well if you want to quit the hero business, I think baldy and the others would let you walk away if you wished. But if you want to wear those, admittedly quite fetching" here he bowed toward the ladies "uniforms then you should realize now that the people you face will play rough."

Jean and the others blushed lightly but nodded along with the boys, understanding his point. Kitty however bounced up and down in place. "So, like, was I right, are you some kind of mage, all those weird powers were so totally cool!"

Harry nodded again looking around them. "Yes, I'm a wizard, though not like most on this planet I've discovered."

Scott shook his head, wondering how the hell they could make plans to match someone who seemed to bend reality to his whim. "No wonder we couldn't handle you."

Harry frowned. "Is that what you think?" He looked around at the others head cocked inquiringly. "Do you all think that way, that I'm steamrolling you because of my powers?"

All of them nodded their heads save the redhead nodded, she merely looked thoughtful, as if she was thinking of something but couldn't quite put it in words. Harry shook his head. "It's not my powers that make me dangerous One-eye. I'm dangerous because of my brain and my training, not just my magical power. Hells I'll prove it right now, in the next match I won't use any magical power, just physical skills that any soldier could have. You lot got ten minutes before we start again." With that Harry walked off down the street and out of sight.

Every one of them visibly perked up but Jean again, who remembered the way she had been handled. It hadn't been Scott's energy beam that knocked her out, she remembered the pain from it, but she also remembered a shield of some kind appearing and protecting the two of them before she was knocked out by a very professional chokehold. _Why do I think we are going to get corncobbed here? _

The others however ignored her for a moment, with Scott once more taking charge. "Alright, it's obvious he's the one underestimating us this time around. Kurt, I want you to be our scout for this one, keep teleporting all around us as we start to search for him. Same general plan as before, I want to pin him in place and let Rogue touch him, so…"

Rouge spoke up then. "Ah don't know if that'll work, I was able ta get close but he fought me off without touchin' mah skin."

"Then we double team him!" Evan said enthusiastically. "He's been awful careful to take isolate us, take us out one by one, if we don't let him do that, we can hammer him under!"

Kitty was still euphoric about the fact magic was real to make any contribution to the discussion. "Like, I wonder what else can he do, like could he transform, or fly, or ohhhh…"

Rogue smacked her upside the head with a gloved hand. "Focus Kitty, fight now interrogate later."

Kitty pouted but complied. "If he's promised to not use his powers, I bet he won't be able to fight my powers y'know."

Scott nodded firmly. "Then that's what we'll do. Kitty go ghost mode as soon as we start moving, and the moment you see a chance to immobilize him, do it. I think that's all we should plan for now, let's play the rest by ear."

Jean groaned. Playing it by ear wasn't any of their strong points well except for Kurt he was pretty good at that. Still she knew that somehow this was going to go bad for them. A sneaking suspicion made itself known, and she reached out with her telepathic powers. _Professor, is that the point of this exercise? That we're just here to learn there's always a bigger fish?_

_Not the way I would put it my dear, but essentially yes. _The older man's mental voice answered promptly. _I wanted to see for myself what skills Harry possesses, as well as getting you all to realize that your powers alone are not enough, it is how you use them. You all have started to slack off in your training, and I felt a bit of a wake up was in order. And I'm sorry, but I want the others to realize this for themselves, so could you not tell them what you've realized?_

Jean sighed mentally_, yes professor though I'm not looking forward to being knocked out again._

_Don't worry my dear we have an excellent medical facility as you well know. _

Jean's lips pursed barely concealing a groan at that, but she followed along with the others. She wondered how Harry was going to attack them this time. And yes she would remember his name like he asked, though if he called her Red again there would be hell to pay. _Now if I could only figure out what about him grabs my attention so much, there's just something about him, not just the eyes but something else that calls out to something in me._

* * *

Harry had retreated to the inside of a building, wondering anew at the technology this room represented. It was truly awesome, and he longed to get into its guts and figure out how it worked. Nanites, hardlight holograms, both mixed together or what? But for now he needed to concentrate on taking out these kids. "Hey Logan can this room create weapons too? I never said that I wouldn't use guns or stuff after all, just that I'd fight them as a normal soldier."

Logan's voice answered him promptly, coming from a small speaker set in the wall near him. "Sure kid, just tell it what ya want. But are ya sure you can take the kids out without using magic? I don't know what training you've had but that's a tall order."

"The only ones that will give me trouble is Red, the teleporter and the ghost most of all. The others I can handle easy. And as for training I was trained by a few S.A.S. members when I was younger, and I've kept up the training as much as I could, physically anyway." As Logan whistled Harry asked the room for certain supplies, and then went to work. Logan laughed at the list while Ororo shook her head exasperatedly. "Oh and room, if I hit anyone with a few of these mission kill them okay?" The watchers agreed and the program acknowledged the new orders.

About ten minutes later he was on the roof of one of the buildings the room had created, looking through a sniper scope on a L115A3, with a sound suppressor on the end of the barrel. The ammo was a mixed bag, with rubber bullets that would hurt like hell, mixed with paint balls. He looked through his rifle, Following Kurt for a second then switched down to the streets for just a second to make certain the youngsters were following him, which they were. He sighed in irritation, _damn these guys are green, they just have no idea how to move in enemy territory, nor how to be sneaky. If I were them I'd send the teleporter and little miss ghost out shadowing him one way while I moved in an entirely different direction and tried to encircle me. _

He watched for a few more minutes as they made their way through the cityscape coming into his range, breathing easily, calmly waiting until Nightcrawler stopped to shout down at the others, then took his shot.

The first, a rubber bullet, was going too fast for Jean's warning of "Kurt watch out!" to do anything, and it smacked into his chest with bruising force, followed swiftly by another, this time a paint bullet that caught Kurt in his head as he clutched at his stomach.

"V-vhat the!" Kurt moaned.

Scott acted quickly turning toward the way the bullet had to have come from and shot out a full power blast from his eyes, demolishing the building. But Harry had already moved off as soon as the second bullet left the rifles snout, using a prepared rope to rappel to the next building over then down.

Scott turned to look at Kurt, who Evan and Jean were helping to his feet. Suddenly the Danger room announced "Subject Nightcrawler, mission kill."

The others looked confused but Logan answered their questions before they could voice them. "Sorry kids, since this is a normal human against you Harry asked if he could take you out 'permanently', and we agreed. If this was real life Kurt, you would've just died, so for the rest of this exercise you're out."

Kurt groaned, rubbing at his sore chest, and the other bumps and bruises that hadn't fully healed from the previous to debacles. "I surely won't complain, I'll just sit here guys, go get him for me huh?"

Scott nodded. "He can't have gone far from the building he was hiding in. Keep together and let's go, shout out if you see anything, and I mean anything moving." The others nodded somberly, their earlier confidence having taken a nose dive at how Kurt had been taken out.

They moved forward now more seriously, With Jean trying to find their opponents mind with her powers, but yet again she seemingly couldn't find his mind at all, it was the strangest mental defense she had ever seen, it was as if he had somehow made his mind disappear from her senses. She could tell ti was there, barely anyway, but not its location, form, or anything about his thoughts.

As they neared the rubble of the building Scott had destroyed, they came under fire from another building. Cyclops and Jean both responded, one zapping the building at full power with his eye beams and the other by throwing several kinetic blasts at it. But the damage had already been done, with several canisters falling among the x-men. A few started to let out a gray gas that quickly spread, making Spyke and Kitty both cough and Scott yelled "Gas, everybody fall back!" The other things harry had thrown, time delayed flashbangs, went off then, practically blinding everyone.

Jean and Rogue were able to fall back, but Harry had already rounded the corner from where he had jumped out of the building Scott and Jean had targeted. Harry came in, making for where he could see Scott doubled over and grabbing at his eyes through his mask. Harry didn't attack him though, he merely reached out when Scott brought his own hands away and ripped his visor off. Harry kept moving through the smoke and away as Scott lost control of his beams. They lashed out, catching Spyke and lifting him up to slam him hard against the wall, and nearly hitting a few of the others before Scott could close his eyes all the way again.

Kitty hadn't yet recovered from the gas, and was down on one knee coughing horribly. Harry really didn't have the heart to hurt her again as he had in the second match, so simply slapped her on the back of the neck with a deactivated shock stick. The danger room agreeably intoned "Subject Shadowcat, mission kill. Subject Spyke, mission kill." Evidently the calculated damage Spyke had taken from Scott's eyebeams had taken him out of the fight. Kitty groaned, and Harry took a second to ruffle her hair before moving off.

Harry faded back into a nearby alley, having done enough damage with this first ambush. However Jean and Rogue had a different idea. Jean blasted through the wall of the building next to him, letting Rouge jump forward in an attempt to grapple with him.

Harry swiftly threw another flashbang forward past Rogue's shoulder. Jean made the mistake of smacking it aside with her power, which merely made it go off quicker. She stumbled back blinking her eyes as Harry led Rogue further down the alleyway.

Rogue growled as she noticed that Harry had put on gloves and a long sleeve shirt, making it much harder for her to get skin to skin contact. They moved down the alleyway away from the others, while behind them Jean came out of the hole after them, still rubbing at her eyes with one hand, but still game.

Scott had again covered his eyes but now was stumbling around blind. He moved around on his hands and knees hoping to find his glasses. He stumbled forward, tripping over something on the ground, something that felt strangely like a wire. "Was that a, oh cra-!" a loud boom sounded, and Scott was lifted into the air by a small explosion and found himself covered in paint. An instant later the danger room made its morbid announcement. "Well fuck."

He sat up gingerly, his whole body on fire with pain. He made certain to keep his eyes closed, as he shook his head very slowly in resignation, lest it fall off. "I think I know what the point of this exercise is now. We weren't supposed to win were we? Was this supposed to show us how much more we had to learn professor?"

"Partly, and partly because you all have been a little lackadaisical lately with your training. Ladies, do you understand now?"

Rogue and Jean, who were still fighting Harry backed off. Rogue answered with a scowl on her face. "Yeah ahh guess, though if we were able tah continue this time at least we would've beaten him."

No sooner had she finished speaking that she flinched as a paintball smacked into her chest. She looked over in shock at harry, who was now holding a handgun. He turned, showing where it had been strapped to his back. "No you weren't. If Red over there hadn't recovered so bloody quickly from the flashbang so quickly I would've ended you then and there but I didn't want to show my ace unless I could take you both out."

Jean twitched at the nickname again and smiled faux sweetly at the emerald eyed older boy. "Let's make a deal, you don't call me Red anymore and I don't use my powers to squish your head like a grape."

"Ooh, feisty, brilliant." Harry laughed. "But okay, I just thought Red was better than 'Marvel Girl'." He snickered and Jean groaned. She should have known that code name was going to come back and haunt her, but it had seemed like such a good idea at the time. Rogue laughed at her and the three of them made their way to the door to the danger room.

The rest of the x-men slowly recovered and joined them as they exited the danger room, Kitty already talking a mile a minute. "So, like can you fly? Are there other magic users? How did you learn magic, is it something you can teach anyone else? And like do you have to obey natural laws, like conservation of energy, or mass?"

Harry laughed, already seeing the girl as a younger, slightly more naïve and far more outgoing Hermione. "Easy Curly, let me answer the first batch before you hit me with more. No, I can't fly under my own power I can jump pretty far but that's it. I can use a broom to fly though, and I know the runic array for that so I might create a broom or something else eventually, maybe a magic carpet or something. Yes there are other magic users, though my magic is a little different from the magic people seem to use in this dimension, so no I couldn't teach you how to use my type of magic. And yes, I need to obey the conservation of energy and mass, though it's really tricky to see how the energy is conserved and where the mass comes from when you're using magic."

By that time the door had opened and the X-men found their elders waiting for them. Ororo already had a medical bag ready and waiting and motioned her nephew Evan over to her immediately. It was a testament to how sore he was that he didn't even protest and went over to her willingly. As Storm looked over her nephew the rest of the x-men moved to stand before Charles and Logan. Charles smiled, a little sadly yet mostly kindly. "And what have you all learned from this experience?"

Jean answered crisply. "To always remember there is room for growth, and to never underestimate someone just because they don't have a mutant power. Scruffy over there"

"Oh now you're just being mean," Harry mock pouted. "I can't do anything about my hair it's a family trait for it to be unfixable."

Jean pointedly ignored the interruption. "Took us apart slower but just as certainly when he wasn't using his powers but was using regular military equipment and was ready for us."

Scott nodded eager to show he understood the lesson too. "We also were far too overconfident and went in assuming the enemy wouldn't have a plan of his own."

Harry spoke up again, his voice serious as he pointed at Kitty. "You also didn't listen to your teammates contributions. I'm not saying it would have made much of a difference, but you would have been a little better prepared to handle the surprises I sprang on you in the second match. A good leader doesn't make all the decisions himself without any input mate, you have to learn to work with and take the advice of other people."

Scott frowned feeling like he was under attack for a moment but nodded, slumping a little as he realized most of the problems they had run into he made through his assumptions. He vowed to get better while the others added their own opinions. Charles smiled as they all seemed to have gotten the correct message. "Well in that case, I believe everyone has learned from this exercise. Now, once everyone has had some medical attention I believe we can introduce Harry to you all formally and vice versa." The youngsters nodded, marching off to the medical wing, with Ororo following helping Evan along.

Eventually the medical programs determined that other than Kitty, Jean and Evan none of the others had anything wrong with any of them that a few hours rest wouldn't cure. They'd be sore for a few days and taking oodles of pain killers, but there was nothing to be done about that. Kitty, despite still dealing with a bit of electricity in her system from the second round bounced around excitedly. "So what do you think of the new guy?"

Rogue shrugged. "Ah think he's powerful, but a little loopy. Ah wouldn't want tah fight him for real though, the way he took us apart in the second match and the third was kind of scary."

Scott shrugged. "I think if we had been able to have some more time to recover we could have beaten him either time though I won't deny he's skilled and his magic is hard to counter."

Jean rolled her eyes, the bruises and burns on her chest and stomach bothering her more than she wanted anyone to know. She sat behind a partition so the others couldn't see her as Ororo put some burn cream on her stomach and chest. "I doubt it, he was basically toying with us the entire time. He could have taken us out easily at any point. And our team reactions sucked, every time we were surprised we acted as individuals instead of a team. We'll need to work on that." Scott ignored the first half of what she said, but nodded firmly with the last part.

Once Evan was comfortable in the hospital rooms bed, the others followed Charles back out to the living room. Ororo opted to stay with her nephew for a bit. They found Logan and Harry there, sharing a beer. Well, Logan was drinking a beer, Harry was sipping from a glass of whiskey. Charles frowned at that. "I would prefer you not to drink in front of my charges Harry, especially since you are so young yourself."

Harry waved away his concern. "I'm twenty one so I'm legal here in the colonies old boy, and in Britain the legal age of drinking is 18."

Charles shook his head resignedly. "Well than Harry, why don't you introduce yourself?"

Harry nodded and looked over at the others. He gave them a brief overview of his life, as well as explaining how he got into the Negative Zone, and back out.

Rogue and the others all gasped at his knowing the Fantastic Four, though the girls were more interested in Harry knowing the Invisible Woman than the others. "Do you think you could get us their autograph?" Rogue and Kitty stammered then Kitty elaborated. "Especially Susan Richards, she's like our idol, with how strong she is but also keeping her, y'know identity as a woman."

Harry laughed at that but refused to make any promises. After another hour of discussion as the kids introduced themselves and told their own stories about how they had found out about their powers Harry had a good idea about all their personalities and how best to start teaching them tactics and strategy, as well as how best to use their powers. After a little longer Charles clapped his hands. "Alright, as it is a Tuesday it is a school night and as such the kids at least need to get to bed. Logan, could you show Harry to his room please?" Logan grunted an affirmative.

Harry nodded then looked seriously at the kids. "For your first assignment from me I want an After Action Report from all of you detailing your mistakes and what you could have done differently in our matches. Get it to me by Friday, and we'll go over it individually on Saturday before a team exercise."

The kids groaned while Ororo and the other adults looked at him in surprise, but Harry merely shrugged. "What, did you think this would all be hands on learning? Part of getting better is analyzing your mistakes, and AAR's are good for that. I won't assign them often, but I may have you do some reading, and a lot of studying about modern weaponry and tactics."

Charles smiled inwardly, more than happy with the way Harry was handling the students. "I agree, that sounds like an excellent idea." The kids grumbled but nodded and everyone dispersed for the evening.

Logan showed Harry his room on the third floor, which was designated the teacher's floor then entered his own room across the hall. Ororo's was down the hall at the end across from her large arboretum, and Charles had his own room by the stairs with its own elevator to accommodate his disability.

The room itself wasn't quite as large as his room at Potter Place, but was more than enough space for his needs. He set his laptop on the desk by the wall and lay down on the queen size bed, stretching luxuriantly. _Charles scored a few points in the 'trust' column today, letting me smack those kids around a bit shows he cares about their training, and that he's alright with training to fight to kill if need be. The kids were a little arrogant at first, but a few more sessions like todays will hammer that right out of them. It'll be interesting to see if they all pick up on their most glaring weaknesses, but we'll see. I wonder about who they've been fighting though, certainly from the way they talked they weren't taking them seriously, so maybe it's just another group of kids? Oh well, I'll find out eventually. Have to figure out how to dump some gold soon though, I don't want to be dependent on Xavier no matter how much I agree with his dream for the future. T_hat was his last thought before he turned his light off and fell asleep.

* * *

End chapter

Third chapter done in record time, don't get used to it, I want to finish WW first before I devote much time to this story, but my imagination hit me hard for this story in particular and I had to answer it.

Before anyone gets irritated at me for Harry so easily curbstomping the X-men, remember that this is a Harry who is a trained hardened war vet, against a bunch of kids with fancy costumes and barely a year (I think) of training, less in most cases. Will they get a hell of a lto stronger yes, but in this fight, Harry had almost everything going for him.

As always read and review.


	4. Acclimatizing goes both ways

Here is my fourth chapter of my Harry/marvel cross. I think it is a little more raw and unpolished than the others, but that is because we are now moving into areas where I don't have as much information as I would like.

Several people have mentioned that Harry should be able to fly, that was deliberate, to make him fallable and as a bit of a bonding moment, as you will see in this chapter. A few people have commented on the size of Storm's breasts, but I am using the 'anime conventions' here, so it is pretty normal actually (think somewhere between Saya and Saeko of H.o.t.D).

* * *

**Chapter 4 Acclimatizing goes both ways**

Harry woke up early the next morning at sunrise, and smiled happily at the rays of sunlight coming through the window. He got up, stretched for a moment then felt for his link with his familiar. One eyebrow rose in surprise as he felt Hedwig close by. Following the link he exited his room and went down three doors to the entrance to the large arboretum he had seen as they rode up to the front door.

Inside he found a multitude of plants and trees, all of them growing together in a wild profusion rather than separated into different classes and types. Walking through it he soon found Hedwig perched on a tree. Her eye had been closed but as he walked up to her Hedwig's golden eyes popped open. "Preck."

"Hey Hedwig, just wanted to make certain you were okay after such a long flight, if you want to get some more sleep I'll prepare a rasher of bacon for lunch rather than brekkers."

Hedwig shook her head. "Preck. Preck, guah."

Harry's emerald eyes narrowed. "Really, **two** of them?"

Hedwig nodded her head. "Preck."

"And one of them really did wear the form of a bird at first? Then changed into a woman?"

"Preck."

"Huh, well I don't know about that one, but the other one I knew about before. I wonder if she was there to watch me or to watch the FF?" Hedwig shrugged eloquently not caring which it was.

Ororo's voice came from behind him. "Good morning Harry, it isn't often that I see anyone else up this early. Is there a problem?"

Harry turned and gasped, all his blood rushing to his cheeks and further down. Ororo was standing there wearing nothing but a small, strangely challenging smile. Her large E cup breasts stood out proudly topped with nipples the color of dark chocolate, her skin was the color of coffee with a hint of cream added, her waist was thin, her legs long and her body without blemish or mark.

Ororo had spent much of her life living alone on the plains of Africa after a young girlhood as a poor thief in Cairo after her parents had died in an earthquake. As such she had never developed the nudity taboos that Americans took for granted. She had noticed Harry entering her sanctuary and wondered what he was doing, and thought that this would be an interesting test of his personality as well.

Harry gaped for a second then with an effort of will concentrated on just Ororo's face, allowing a smirk to appear on his own. "Um, wow I didn't know this room was clothing optional."

Ororo shrugged. "You may join me if you wish, but what were you discussing with Hedwig? Incidentally" she turned to the snowy owl, "I would appreciate it if you hunted on the grounds outside rather than in here. I doubt there are many animals in here, but I don't want to find any, leavings, shall we say?" Hedwig bobbed her head in assent, liking how the female human had already gotten used to her intelligence. It normally took the silly two-foots much longer to realize that she was probably as smart as they were if not more so.

Ororo turned and was amused to see Harry already had his shirt and pants off, though he kept his boxers on. His eyes however after that first gaping full body stare remained on Ororo's face, aned he made no move to close the distance between them. "Hedwig says we were being watched by two people when we left the Baxter Building. One of them I knew about, she's been watching, well I thought she was bloody watching Johnny Storm and just generally keeping an eye on the Fantastic Four. The other though, she's apparently the local equivalent of an animagus. She was in the form of a crow at first then transformed into a blue-skinned woman when Hedwig knocked her out of the sky."

Ororo frowned then looked over at Hedwig approvingly. "Give her a few extra bacon slices for me Harry. That sounds like Mystique. She's the leader of the local opposition' as it were, the Brotherhood of Mutants. Did the others tell you about them?"

Harry nodded. "I understood the Brotherhood is a group of teens like the kids downstairs but the groups based more about using their powers for personal gain than essentially evil or anything like that. Is Mystique the same way?"

Ororo found her own eyes glued to Harry's pecs and the odd assortment of scars he had. To many they might be a turn off, but to her they spoke of experience and his ability to survive anything the world could throw at him. And it had been a long time for her, and her last (and only second of two) relationship with a man had been disappointing. Going to college had been necessary, but the majority of people she had met were so juvenile and shallow, and the man she had dated and eventually slept with had been no exception, merely better than most at hiding it.

Harry was anything but juvenile despite his lack of a verbal brake system, and was actually quite a deep thinker as well. _ And eyes I could drown in, and is handsome and…_ Her eyes tried to trail downward but she resolutely raised them back to his face. Thankfully Harry was busy stroking Hedwig and hadn't noticed her lack of attention, though she could swear the snowy owl had. "I would say she is more amoral then truly evil, but she is extremely devoted to the cause of mutant supremacy. Whoever her leader is she believes him or her the best chance to fulfill that dream and to protect mutant-kind from prosecution."

Harry nodded. _Maybe I should talk to this Mystique woman, I definitely want to hear both sides of this argument before I really choose a side, after all there might be more reasons to fear a normal human backlash than Charles knows or is prepared to admit._ "I see. Well, enough about that for now, when do the others wake up? And do you want me to cook breakfast for everyone? Any preferences or dietary needs?"

Ororo chuckled, going back to using her powers to water her plants. Harry stared, his control fraying as she saw her laugh a little under the rain she had summoned, the water glistening on her dark skin. "No, no dietary needs though the girls, especially Jean, seem to think they need to diet. I have tried to convince them otherwise but if you wish to try you are more than welcome. They won't awake for at least another two hours though, so we have time. Tell me more of your adventures? Where did you get the one odd scar on your arm, it looks as if it's from a giant tooth. And you mentioned creating a 'ward' I believe you called it, to cut me off from local weather patterns?"

Harry grinned, pushing aside his desire for now to just enjoy the aesthetics of watching Ororo move about her arboretum uncaring of her nudity. _If she isn't going to make a big deal out of it I'll try not to as well. _"Well, I did yes, and I can try to come up with something later today once the kids have gone to school. I may have to use trial and error at first of course as your ability isn't based off magic, but I'm certain I can come up with something. As for my scar, since we've already played 'you show me yours and I'll show you mine' how about I tell you mine and you tell me yours, a story for a story?"

Ororo laughed aloud, spinning in place and setting the clouds she had summoned to twisting and twirling in a slight eddy. "Of course, if you go first."

Harry nodded and sat down, leaning back against a tree. "Well in that case that particular scar came from a monstrous snake called a basilisk. I don't know if you've heard of them but…."

* * *

A very pleasant hour later Harry excused himself reluctantly from the 'goddesses presence' to go shower and then head down to cook breakfast for the horde. He had found Ororo pleasant, very intelligent company, who had a very good knowledge of current events and an ear for languages that he had never seen the equal of. She could speak in twelve languages like a native, and read and write in all with equal proficiency. _And here I thought that speaking French Italian and Latin was impressive._ Her story about her parent's death and how she had lived on the street reminded him over much of how the Durlseys had mistreated him. While he had been abused because of who he was, she had been abused whenever she failed to steal something.

_She was incredibly lucky even so_, he thought grimly, remembering coming in after a particularly nasty Death Eater raid, where the two young daughters of the house had been left, their minds broken and bodies mauled after the Death Eaters had used them for their pleasure. _Yes very lucky indeed. And so was the rest of the world_. He shuddered, wondering what could have happened if Ororo's powers had woken up early from such trauma, wild and uncontrolled. Hurricanes, tornados and massive storms would have done untold damage. Now though he put aside such dark thoughts and concentrated on making breakfast.

The others got up in their own order and were surprised to find the new teacher already up, save for Kurt who cursed at missing an opportunity to pay the new guy back for smacking them around the previous evening. Most of them sat down talking amongst themselves. The guys were loud, but moving gingerly, Scott most of all due to that final paint claymore, while Kitty was quiet, chewing on a pen and contemplating a letter she was evidently writing. Rogue too sat quietly, listening to some music on her headphones and tapping along to the beat, trying to ignore the injuries she had sustained. Jean however, after stopping off to get some more burn cream and still nursing her burned chest walked into the kitchen. "Do you need any help Mr. Potter?"

"Gah, outside of lessons call me Harry, I'm not really interested in formality for formalities sake, especially from someone only a few years younger than me. And no, I don't need any help thanks, though if you could get everyone some drinks that would be fine if they're too lazy to get up and get their own." Jean giggled a little at that but his next words, spoken loud enough for the others in the dining room to hear, wiped the smile off her face. "And Ororo told me that you girls seem to want to diet. That ends now, you lot are active and in training, you need all the energy you can get. So you'll have a full plate and like it."

Jean glared at him but he glared right back emerald against green. Jean sighed and nodded, giving up in the face of the inevitable, after all it wasn't like he could force her to eat, could he? "Alright fine. But can you tell me why I couldn't get a read on you in yesterdays match? I can't even find your mind for goodness sake!"

Harry smirked, waving a finger at her to come closer. Jean sighed but did so and Harry whispered. "Have you ever heard of indivisibility cloaks?" Jean shrugged, but the name seemed self-explanatory to her. "I imagine one then cover my mind with it, so that no one else can see it."

Jean gaped. "B-but that can't work! Your mind can't be that organized! Our thoughts fly all over the place, I've been meditating ever since the professor told me about my power but I've never heard of anyone being able to organize your mind like that."

Harry looked at her thoughtfully as his hands worked without conscious thought on finishing the food. "How much free time do you have on a day to day basis?"

Jean frowned at the odd question. "Not much really, I get home around 7, I'm part of the cheerleading squad and the soccer team right now. Then I'm part of the basketball team when in season, the floor hockey team when in season, and of course I've got homework for school and daily workouts with Logan and the others."

Harry's eyebrows rose in amusement. "That much huh, well aren't you a busy little bee." Jean frowned at the slightly mocking tone but Harry went on. "See, the problem is I could loan you some books on occlumency, the magical method of organizing and protecting your mind, but I don't know how far you could get with that little time a day to devote to it, nor am I certain that a mundane, sorry non-magical, could use them in the first place. When I was learning I had to devote at least four hours a day straight to meditating and organizing my mind."

Jean kept frowning. "I'm not certain I could take that much time off, I mean I've got obligations and I want to keep my A+ average."

"Good grief you're like an athletic Hermione!" Harry shook his head, a slightly sad smile on his face. "Well, I'll give you the books in any case. I'll also give Xavier a set, see what he thinks of them. Honestly though it's not the first thing I was going to teach you."

Kurt popped in to help set the table, wincing a little as his aching ribs twanged. "Oh, you already thought of what you vanted to teach us Harry?"

"Yep, different things for each of you actually, and a lot of team exercises. For you Kurt I'm thinking of a lot of martial arts, like krav maga, we'll see what Logan thinks about that, and maybe some medical knowledge to know where to aim your blows." Kurt blanched a little at the serious nature of Harry's suggested lessons. "And for you Red" Jean growled, making stabbing motions with a handful of forks she had grabbed for the table but Harry ignored her. "I want to see how many ways you can use your powers, I haven't much of a handle on them, but I think they could be damn powerful."

"Well maybe if you hadn't taken me out so fast each time you'd know what all I was capable of," Jean said snippily, irritated by his continued use of that hated nickname.

"I had to, you're powers were the most unknown therefore the most dangerous. I was able to tell what the limitations of everyone else's was, but not yours, and if you think about it, given what you and Charles said about telekinesis last night you could probably have countered most of what I did by yourself if you had known what to expect."

Harry brought out the food and everyone piled in as Jean thought about that. It was actually kind of professionally flattering in a way, that Harry thought she was the most dangerous of the team, even if she knew it wasn't true.

Ororo and the other adults were at one end of the table, and Harry sat down next to Ororo who smiled in welcome. She had a lovely morning with him earlier, and he had passed her little test this morning with flying colors. Other than that first initial glance and another when she started watering her plants (and even she had to admit that she looked quite enticing when doing that) he had ignored her nakedness and been able to carry on a perfectly normal conversation. And it wasn't like she hadn't enjoyed the view of his pecs and hard muscles. There was a surprising amount of power in his lithe frame.

The stories they had shared also showed her they had a lot in common, both of their childhoods had been hard, marked with hardship, lack of food and horrible home life (in her case because of the thieves that had taken her in after her parents died, and in his case because of the Dursleys).

Evan saw the smile on his aunt's face and scowled, wondering what the hell was happening between her and this new guy.

Scott looked around at the others. He was so sore from the other day's fights that he didn't even want to think about moving, but he had to. "Professor, will we have any time in the Danger Room after school? I've been thinking about yesterday's battles and I've thought of what we did wrong."

Harry answered him. "Good, in that case your AAR will be easy to write, and I'll work with you one on one this afternoon after school." Scott frowned wanting to correct the team problems first but Harry went on inexorably. "First you work on the individual issues. Learn your own strengths and weaknesses, then see how you can put them all together to be stronger as a team." Charles smiled at the sentiment, and the others all nodded.

Scott did too after a moment, though he didn't think he had done anything physically wrong. He had made a lot of wrong decisions, but that was all. If he had known Harry was a wizard he would have been able to come up with an appropriate plan. Harry smirked at him as if he could read his mind and shook his head.

Kurt tried to reach over to a plate of bacon that Harry had placed between him and Ororo. They both stopped him however, saying together "I wouldn't do that if I were you" then smirking at one another.

Kurt looked at the two adults in surprise but his answer came swooping in on silent wings. Hedwig landed before her just reward, and immediately began to gobble the bacon down. All of the girls oohed at the beautiful bird, and Harry regaled them with the story of how he and Hedwig had been introduced by Hagrid, his half-giant acquaintance, and what being a familiar entailed both for him and for Hedwig.

Kitty broke in at this point, having put her letter down to stare at the bird. "Like, is there any magic you could teach us?"

Harry frowned in thought. "Well, I don't know, I want to introduce Red here" Jean growled again at the name causing Kurt and Scott to look at her in surprise. Who knew she had an issue with being called such a simple nickname? "To occlumency, the mental discipline of us wizards, I suppose I could see if you could get a reaction out of runes or wards. Agatha says people in this dimension can use magical items, so we'll see. I know in my home dimension mundanes couldn't, Hermione tried to teach her parents how to use some of the magical items, especially a magic communication mirror, so they could talk during the school year, and they couldn't."

"Who's Hermione?" Kitty asked.

Harry paused, his emerald eyes dimming for a moment. "She was my best friend my own age, and my first girlfriend. She and her family were also the first to die when Voldermort, the evil wizard I mentioned last night, came back to life and power, because an old man who was supposed to be leading the so-called 'light side' thought I would come to rely on his advice if I didn't have her by my side, and so didn't bother protecting her when he should have." Everyone looked at him in horror, but he shrugged. "It was the start of a very bad time, but it was at least five and a half years or so ago, so I've had time to get over it." He looked over at Kitty's sad face and smirked a little. "You and little miss honors student" he waved over at Jean "remind me a bit of her honestly. So sure, let's find out what you all can use huh?"

Kitty nodded happily, wanting desperately to add some more offensive punch to her repertoire. As it was she was pretty much dependent on her mutant power for all her offense and defense, and as Harry had proved last night that wasn't going to be enough all the time, and becoming dependent on it might get her killed.

The rest of the breakfast passed quickly and the kids swiftly left for school, leaving Harry and the adults to their own devices.

Logan turned to Harry, an almost challenging look on his face. "If you ain't up to anything this morning do you want to have a spar in the danger room?"

Harry looked at him eyebrow raised then nodded. He had a good idea of Ororo's skill, but getting an idea of how dangerous other more experienced mutants could be was a good idea.

* * *

About an hour later Logan and Harry were facing off against one another in the Danger Room. Harry smirked stretching his arms above his head and cracking his neck. "I don't suppose you'd be such a good sport as to tell me your powers before we begin would you?"

Logan grinned wickedly. "Trust me kid you'll see it soon enough."

Harry shook his head resignedly then without warning shot off a stupefy starting with the least dangerous of his spells.

This didn't startle his opponent at all, and Logan was able to easily dodge the beam or red light. He then charged in and suddenly claws, metal claws popped out from behind his knuckles, three of them to a hand about six inches long and wickedly pointed. Harry jumped back putting a protego up between them, the weakest of his shield spells. "Ah," he said blandly. "I do see your point now."

`Logan barked a laugh and struck out, shattering the magic shield with a squeal as the shield broke, then tried to close in again.

Harry fired off a difindo and then a bombarda, but Logan took the first one without blinking, and dodged the second. To Harry's surprise the cutting spell didn't do much damage, even underpowered it should have cut a small slash into Logan from shoulder to hip, but it had barely cut into his shoulder and as Harry watched that too closed.

"Huh" he said intelligently then had to duck a slash and twist away from a follow up uppercut topped with claw points. He punched out, his fist glowing with a second bombarda spell that smashed into Logan's face blowing the older man off his feet and away. Yet even that wasn't able to keep him down for long. He jumped up, the blast on his face already healing in front of Harry's surprised eyes. "It's like you've got an intravenous tube feeding you healing droughts!" He was again forced to dodge, diving to the ground to avoid a roundhouse blow tipped with gleaming points. A half powered 'rifela', a penetrating attack spell, caught Logan on the kneecap, punched into the skin but then bounced off the bone. "What the bloody fuck!"

This went on for some time. Harry was fast and had insane reflexes and hand/eye coordination, and was well if eclectically trained in hand to hand. Logan however was simply a monster in close combat, he had a healing speed that was insane, reflexes almost as good as Harry's, his claws and more training. More he was smart enough to not give Harry any time or distance, keeping the pressure on and the battle in close. So while Harry could land about two blows for every nick he took, neither could land a knockout punch. Even Harry's lightning spells didn't do more than slow Logan down. More he had a sense of smell, and could tell when Harry tried to use illusions or conjure beats to draw his attention and always matched said easily if they tried to attack him.

After about an hour of This Harry was bleeding from several places and wishing he had changed into his crisis suit. _All right, if his bones are metal and he's got a healing ability that is just crazy, so let's see what happens if I attack his brain box. _Harry stopped using his spells, building up a spell-chain in both hands as he dodged around one slash and stab after another. He built the chain from a series of simple spells and one advanced one he had created in the Negative Zone called shatter-shaker. A moment later he saw his chance and first used a tickling charm, which caught Logan mid-leap.

Logan began to convulse in laughter, but he still swung his claws around, trying automatically to force Harry to keep his distance. Harry however was more than happy to oblige. He jumped back and fired off a glue making spell, pinning Logan in one place then fired a series of shatter-shakers. This spell was designed to hit something and then cause a vibration to shake it apart. It had been designed to take out defensive positions by shaking the walls apart. Now these spells were underpowered and targeted specifically, but even so the jolts and continued shaking of Logan's brain inside his skull was eventually able to put him out and down.

As soon as Logan hit the floor Harry cancelled the spells, and used a leviosa to pick Logan up and head out of the Danger Room. This fight had proven one thing above and beyond anything else, the X-kids had a lot of learning to do before they were anywhere near as good as an adult mutant at using their powers, and Harry knew now that he wasn't going to be powering through any mutant he met, a good thing to learn now before he faced an actual enemy.

Logan woke up as Harry was levitating him toward the medical center. After growling angrily at having lost, he made Harry put him down. "You're good kid, real good, I thought I was winning there for a few minutes." More he could tell the kid wasn't putting as much into the fight as he could have, there were several times he could tell the kid switched from a more dangerous spell to the one he did use on the clawed mutant.

Harry nodded. "Yep you were but then I changed tactics. On another topic, you look like you might know how to do this, how do I go about converting gold into cash?"

* * *

Harry spent the rest of the morning and into the afternoon learning about the wonderful world of the criminal element, how computers could be used, laundering money and offshore accounts. Harry was a little leery about using this information though, as he would not get nearly as good a return on his gold as he would if he went to legitimate businesses. So instead Logan told him about pawnshops, and agreed to go with him into New York and Philadelphia, which between them had hundreds of stores which would buy gold, few questions asked and no questions answered. That would however be a full day trip, and thus would have to wait for a bit, as Harry wanted to get the kids started own their individual exercises/lessons before pursuing his own interests.

Charles spent his time in the medical wing trying to gleam any clues about Harry's mutant power he could, but was stymied at every turn. There were no readings from the Danger Room sessions that indicated a mutant power, his speed and reflexes, while incredible were still within the bounds of what a normal human could achieve. And he certainly didn't have any extra durability, given the number of injuries he took from his spar with Logan. Everything that had happened around Harry could be 'easily' explained away with his ability to use magic, and it was frustrating the professor no end.

Ororo spent her time as she always did, preparing the kid's language lessons, which occurred every other day, practicing with her own powers in the Danger room and as Harry had asked, cataloguing what things and how quickly she could do said with the local weather both consciously and unconsciously, which may or may not help him create the ward he was thinking about creating for her. The thought occurred to her to mention he might want to create one for Rogue if he could, but she was also leery about doing so as getting the girls hopes up like that might backfire badly if it turned out he couldn't. She had become used to controlling her emotions, so while the ward for her would be an excellent thing to have, it wouldn't be as earth shattering to not have as it would for Rogue.

Harry was coming back from jogging in the woods that made up part of the mansion's property when the kids came back. Scott, being the only one with a license and thus a car, and Kitty and Rogue came home with him, while Evan and Kurt skateboarded home, and thus would be arriving a bit later than the first trio. Jean would arrive even later, busy with all her after school activities.

Kitty hopped out of the car excitedly running up to Harry. "Hey Harry, like are we going to start learning about runes and stuff now? Oh I've had so many ideas on how to use 'em, like maybe we could embed spells in 'em and give me a bit more offensive umph, or maybe defensive woven into our uniforms somehow or…."

Harry laughed, pulling at her curly hair with a lazy hand. "Easy Curly, I've been thinking of those ideas too, but we'll still need to see if you can consciously use runes at all before anything else. That'll be part of your lessons, if you want to, we can start on that kind of thing tomorrow."

Kitty grinned at him, raising two fingers in a v sign. "All right, like I'll get my homework and stuff done for today and tomorrow and we can spend all evening on it. Like, this is going to be so exciting!"

Harry chuckled shaking her head and hoping she wouldn't be too disappointed if they didn't work for her, then turned to Scott. "You ready to go?"

Scott really wasn't, he was still sore from last evening, but he wasn't about to admit to that. "Sure, just let me go get changed."

Harry nodded. "Meet me back here, we'll warm up with a jog and then we'll play a game in the danger room."

Scott almost shuddered at that but nodded and went off to change. He came back and followed Harry on a three mile jog through the woods, finished with a sprint from the edge of the woods back to the house. Then some stretching exercises and the two adjourned to the Danger Room.

Harry entered first setting up the exercise he wanted to put the kid through, then called Cyclops in. "Alright mate, this is going to be a game to test your situational awareness, accuracy with your beams and threat recognition."

Scott nodded and went to stand in the center of the field Harry indicated with a nod. Harry started the program and suddenly small sphere began to shoot out at Scott from all sides, then after a time which he spent firing off small beams and dodging wildly, more things appeared, arrows, robots, and others.

Harry stood to one side, stopping the program occasionally to give advice on the threat recognition, but otherwise let Scott take his lumps, which was the best way for anyone to learn. Scott got better as time went on in terms of control, being able to pair his beam down to deal with each of the different threats without overpowering them too much.

Yet he had a major problem with threat recognition, wanting to treat them all the same and when Harry began to mix in soft targets, i.e. noncombatants, public and pedestrians it became even worse. He seemed to oscillate wildly from being too quick to shoot and hitting bystanders to not shooting at all and taking shots in return. Still, that kind of reaction could be taught over time.

After an hour Harry shut the program down and then spent the next hour going over the recording of the X-men's fight against him the day before. Here Scott began to fall apart. Rather than admit to the main two problems, that he had tried to stick to a very specific plan and hadn't really taken anyone else's advice, he concentrated more on everyone else reactions rather than his own. He also didn't seem to want to take advice from Harry, probably because of Harry being only a few years older than him.

_The problem is,_ Harry reflected, he seems to be the leader, _and he gives orders like one but he doesn't really have any of the leadership qualities. _ Daphne had explained it to him once, it had nothing to do with his power or his fighting ability. No it had to do with charisma, with being able to bring out the best in others, with a certain amount of empathy and the ability to think into the future near and far. Scott had no real empathy and all the charisma of a brick. It remained to be seen whether he could plan for the future and learn from his mistakes in truth.

Harry ended the session by saying blandly, "And you might want to remember not to talk about your plans out loud in enemy territory, you never know who might be listening."

Scott stared at him for a moment, not understanding then it dawned and he scowled angrily. "That's cheating!"

Harry shook his head wearily. "Mate, this isn't a bloody game, its real life, there are no rules except he who survives wins. You all have a telepath on your team that could, theoretically anyway, handle all the communication you guys could bloody use." In fact Jean could probably do far more than that, but that alone was a major advantage.

Scott looked uncomfortable for a minute but nodded, and Harry ended the session by assigning some reading about modern infantry weapons available on the market for both civilians and the military, to acclimatize Scott to the weapons he might face. Scott protested this though. "But our job isn't to fight normal humans, it's to fight other mutants who use their powers against them, if we fight normal humans we're no better than the Brotherhood."

"Hate and the need to feel superior over anyone different doesn't all go one way mate, I bet if you look for it there're probably already hate groups springing up that target mutant-kind." Scott frowned but didn't argue the point, he just didn't want to thinking about it. The idea of using his powers on normal people made him think he was more of a bully than a hero, but he realized it might eventually be necessary.

Harry went back outside to get away from the noise of Evan and Kurt, who had arrived while he and his reluctant student were in the Danger Room, running around the main hall, skate boarding around on the smooth floor. They both stopped as he came by but he just waved a hand at them and moved on, uncaring.

* * *

As the sun was setting, Harry looked up from working on his laptop under a tree by the entrance to the mansion to see a sports car of some kind drive up. As it came to a stop Jean got out from the passenger side looking a little irritated. "Hey Red, guess you weren't kidding about how late you usually get home."

As Jean turned to give him a wan smile a tall, strongly built blond teen got out, staring at him intently before turning to Jean. "Seriously Jean, just ask, they can't keep you in here all the time, even if it is a school night we could go out and catch a movie at least."

Jean shook her head. "Duncan you know that won't work, besides we just got assigned a long term physics project and I want to get a leg up on it tonight. Oh, and this is Harry Potter, he's our new history instructor, and our cook too. Mr. Potter, this is Duncan."

Duncan smirked a little at that. "Oh a cook huh, does he come complete with an apron?"

Harry grinned unpleasantly. "Nah boyo, I just have an extra large barbecue to use on blokes that make fun of my cooking. And I told you not to call me Mr. Potter out of class Red, it makes me feel old."

Jean rolled her eyes, but a smile did steal along her face at his initial joke. Duncan shrugged eloquently. "Well if you're alright with doing something so girly as cooking I guess that's alright for some." His toned implied what kind of 'some' he meant and Jean's eyes narrowed but Harry merely shrugged. "Well I'll see you tomorrow alright Jean?"

Jean nodded and he tried to lean in for a kiss but she moved away, never liking public displays of affection. Duncan scowled a little but wiped it off his face quickly got in his car and gunned it moving away.

Harry cocked his head to one side as he looked at Jean. "So that's your boyfriend huh, an interesting sense of humor he's got."

Jean rubbed her face wearily. "Sorry about that dig, he's usually nicer than that but the football team had a really horrible practice today, half of their offensive line was out with a stomach bug, and Duncan got sacked several times, which always puts him in a bad mood."

Harry's eyebrows crinkled in query. "What's an offensive line got to do with football?"

Jean looked at him then laughed aloud. "Oh right, your British I forgot they don't have that over there, I guess you could call it a more advanced form of rugby then, what you call football we call soccer here in the states." Harry nodded in understanding and she went on. "Listen, I wasn't actually assigned all that much homework tonight, do you think you could give me those meditation books and walk me through some of them tonight?"

Harry nodded. "Sure Red, though we might want to get Ororo involved, sometimes when you start to organize your mind you realize things you didn't think about or notice before, and it can get bloody emotional at times. A female shoulder might be needed."

Jean stopped and stared at him, growling a little. "Alright what the hell is up with the nicknames, I hate being called Red! It makes me think I'm being stereotypes, like all redheaded people have tempers and other sh-stuff!"

"Ooh, nice correction there. Would you prefer luv then, that's what I'd normally call female acquaintances, but I figure being yanks you lot would take it the wrong way." It wasn't actually, but he'd be damned if anyone got out of having a nickname until they became more than an irritating punch of kids to him.

Jean flushed slightly, but that was all. "I would prefer that to Red, but you're right I think people would react badly to that if you used that to any of us girls."

Harry smirked, and led the way inside holding the door open for her. "Duly noted, Red." Jean scowled but couldn't help the chuckle that escaped her.

The two found Ororo in the solarium and when informed of what they were doing she nodded agreement to join them, but asked "Have you run this idea by Professor Xavier?"

Harry shrugged. 'I don't even know if it will work for non-magicals, this is more of an experiment than anything else from my point of view, I'm not certain why Jean wants to learn it so much."

Jean frowned but at Ororo's insistent look decided she had to elaborate. "You said that occlumency can keep other people from getting into your mind, I'm hoping to be able to do much the same. My powers, I, well sometimes even when I'm not actively using my telepathy I pick up things form the minds around me that I rather wouldn't. So I'm hoping occlumency helps me more than the professor's lessons on clearing my mind."

Harry nodded thoughtfully. "So in essence you want to learn to keep your mind to yourself?" The words were whimsical but his eyes showed his understanding of how uncomfortable it could be to have other people's thoughts in your head.

Ororo too was looking at her with understanding and concern. "And you say that Charles' lessons haven't helped?"

Jean nodded a little miserably. "He came into his powers after he had already developed mental discipline and control, right now I would liken it to trying to organize a defense against a massive flood while the flood is going on." _And being a teenager and all that entails is not helping any,_ she thought angrily.

"I'll get the books if that's all right with you, we can use this space yes?"

Ororo nodded. "I'll go and talk to Charles perhaps he will be able to help." It turned out that he did want to sit in, but was a little worried about how it was going to turn out yet when Ororo told him the metaphor Jean used he understood.

Harry brought back the books and walked Jean through the first chapter's meditation, which was a way of meditating through the use of picturing a fire and throwing stray thoughts and emotions into it until you were completely calm. Once you were able to do that, you could go onto the next stage, exploring your memories and organizing them in whatever way you were most comfortable with. He had his organized like a house, but he told Jean that one of his friends imagined them as a forest, with each tree having its own dryad protector, and another organized it like a computer complete with dozens of passwords. Luna and Hermione had been very different in their thought processes, but they had been very good at occlumency, in very different ways, but still.

After an hour Jean was feeling much calmer and more focused than she had been feeling, and determined to do this at least twice a day, once before school and once after. Charles was happy with her progress though urged her to find other metaphors other than fire, which he said was because fire was seen as something destructive, and it might interfere with her getting rid of feelings of anger. Harry shrugged not caring either way, the important things was to get rid of the emotions and stray thoughts, not how you did it.

They broke up and went down to have a late dinner. Everyone else had already eaten, wanting to hit the sack and get over their bruises that much faster.

* * *

The next morning found Harry and Ororo once again spending time together in the arboretum, sharing more stories and talking about current events and politics, getting into a really fascinating discussion comparing the government of Britain to America. Harry went back to his room once again in a good mood only to halt outside his door as he heard sounds of movement inside.

Though nowhere near as much as Evan, who was still stiff and really sore from the pain (not helped by his decision to skate to school), Kurt had been a little bruised and battered around the edges yesterday morning, and had not been up to getting a little revenge on their torturer just then. Thus Kurt had gotten up a little earlier than normal and made his way upstairs to the teacher level to see if he could prank Potter.

Unfortunately he ran into problems immediately. First Harry was already up and gone, leaving Kurt to figure out some way of booby-trapping something, which he wasn't so good at. His next problem occurred when he chose his target. He decided to try his hand at the huge trunk at the foot of the bed rather than the closet, but when he went to open it he found his hands suddenly frozen in place. He jerked and tired to break free of whatever was holding him, he even tried to bamf away, but the weight of the trunk must have been immense as he couldn't take it with him and he was stuck there.

Harry opened his door to look inside and smirked at Kurt's predicament. It seemed as if the stasis ward was able to shut down Kurt's teleporting abilities somehow, something for him to research later, if only to find a way Kurt could combat it. "Well, well, what do we have here? Trying to find out more about me, or trying to set up a prank, blueboy?"

Kurt groaned, unable to even turn and face him. "Um, vhich one would make you less unhappy vith me mine freund?"

"Oh pranking definitely. If you've got questions about me just ask them politely I'll probably answer them unless they're too personal. Now, what to do with you hmm? I know, I'll let you choose, painful or humiliating?"

Kurt actually thought about it. "Given I'm still a little sore from our matches the other day, I'm afraid I'll have to go for humiliating." Besides he knew he could get out of it when he went to school by using his image inducer.

"Humiliating it is." Harry stared at him, imagining the effect he wanted to achieve when he cast the color-changing spell. Then with a wave of his hand Kurt's dark blue fur became a veritable riot of colors, lime, pink, red, orange and yellow in a strange rainbow pattern from the feet up. Another wave and the words 'I tried to prank a Marauder' appeared on Kurt's chest in green.

Kurt gaped down at his body and groaned, closing his eyes even as the stasis field released him when Harry touched the edge of the trunk. "Is it too late to change my mind?"

"Yep, but don't worry mate it'll go away in a few hours. Better luck next time, or you could ask me for some advice, I am the prank master myself you know. In fact I've been thinking of pranking the Hairy one and Baldy since I met them and I've already got a few ideas."

Kurt gaped at him, he'd have never even thought of pranking those two, why that would be the pranks of all pranks! With that thought he knelt before him in homage. "Oh vise master please take this penitent one and show him the ways of the prank!"

Harry grinned at him and raised a hand magnanimously in benediction. Elsewhere in the mansion both the men thus mentioned and several others felt a shiver of fear go down their spines.

* * *

Ororo knocked on Jeans door and entered when she heard a muffled 'come in' she did so, smiling softly at seeing Jean already up and sitting Indian style on the floor, her eyes closed. "Hello Jean, I have more burn cream for you, and breakfast should be ready soon. How are you feeling?"

Jean looked up at Ms. Munroe and smiled. "I'm fine I think, a little sore, but as long as I put on more cream now and before practice this afternoon I should be fine. And I don't know really, I'm more focused and less stressed, a lot less stressed really so that part is good, though I want to see if what I've learned so far will help me keep out other peoples thoughts when I go to school."

"You've only just started, give it time. Even if you can't do the specific defenses Harry can, the organization aspect should help you a lot." Jean nodded, and followed the other woman out, frowning a little at the thought of another meal from Harry. He actually had forced her to eat a full plate at both breakfast and dinner yesterday. He had done something to their chairs and all three of the girls had to sit there and eat a full plate before it let them go. _I hope he doesn't do that again, I really do have to diet to keep my figure, especially at this time of year with the cheerleader season._ This thought would soon spark what would become a bit of daily breakfast theater for the others.

* * *

When Kurt entered dining area from the kitchen carrying a plate of bagels and toppings it was to the sounds of yells of laughter and shock. Evan in particular was laughing it up, and even Logan had a smirk on his face. The girls were all saying how cute he looked (like a normal Kurt crossed with a care bear stare in Kitty's words) but he simply shook his head and said, "Laugh it up guys, you're all next."

That shut them all up and Scott asked warily, "what do you mean?"

Harry came in and clapped a hand on Kurt's shoulder as he brought in the food for breakfast, bacon again (Hedwig would eat his ears if he didn't make some) and home-frys. "It means that the last Marauder now has an apprentice. I would suggest starting to lock your doors gentlemen and ladies. Pranks are the greatest things in the universe and I believe it is my beholden duty to bring this truth to everyone around me."

Logan grumbled while Storm simply shook her head, seeing much amusement and irritation in her future, but not having a problem with it as long as they didn't include her plants or her piano in things. The kids however looked from one prankster to another taking in their matching evil grins and shuddered.

With the kids recovered from their beating at Harry's hands, the breakfast was much more boisterous, so much so that to carry on a conversation Harry actually had to cast a silence spell on the adult section of the table. This allowed him and Logan to talk about where they wanted to take the kids training. Logan agreed to his ideas for training most of them, but wanted to train Kurt himself, as he didn't think that the kid had enough of a killer streak to really get the most out of krav maga, which was one of the most brutal styles in the world. Harry nodded, but said that he would also be teaching Kurt about situational awareness, so he would know where he was and where everything was all around him, regardless of where he was actually looking whenever he teleported into a new place. He also wanted to teach Rogue some martial arts as well, mainly judo and aikido, which had an emphasis on grappling skills and that Logan agreed to.

Storm broke in at this point and asked softly, "Do you think you could make a ward, I believe you call it to cut off Rogues powers as well? Her powers are always on you see, and if she touches someone even a little bit she'll start to absorb their powers and life force."

Harry grimaced realizing that being a mutant wasn't all fun and games, there was a lot of issues with their powers as well, above and beyond the racism. "I can look into it," he said slowly, "the ward might be a little different from yours however, with you I'm trying to cut off a **mental** connection between you and the local weather pattern, what you're describing with her is a physical thing…".

He looked over at Rogue, canceling his spell. "Hey Rogue, I've got a quick question? And is that your name or your code name?"

Rogue, not one to open up to new people so easily had spent most of her time around Harry being quiet, letting the others interact with their new teacher, but she looked up as she was addressed. "It's mah code name," she said her southern drawl apparent, "ahh hate my real name."

"Gotcha. Anyway your power, it's based on touch right, as in you actually feel the skin of the other person before you start doing whatever it is you do?"

Rogue nodded morosely, "yeah thah's the way it works, it's why ahh was tryin' to catch you so often in our matches, ahh can only absorb and shut down powers via touch."

"And you just take their powers?"

Charles answered for her. "Unfortunately not and that is the problem. She absorbs memories and even looks energy in a little limited fashion."

Harry nodded thoughtfully. "In that case I would request that you try not to touch me, some of my memories are….." he trailed off and shook his head. "Let's just say that they're bad and leave it at that okay?" Logan snorted in agreement, having said much the same to the younger girl.

But Harry went on and said thoughtfully. "In that case maybe a shield of some kind, something that will cover the skin and keep you from actually touching other people, that could work, but I'm not sure how much of the sensation of touching you'll still get, so there might not be a point to it. I'm not certain what I can do, but I'll try, just don't get your hopes up okay?"

Rogue nodded, and despite his warning she was still looking a little hopeful. Science didn't have an answer to controlling her powers, but maybe magic did.

Later as everyone made to get up Jean sat there angrily, not being able to get up as there was still half a bagel and bit of home-fry on her face. She looked up and noticed the other girls had all cleaned their plates and so were able to leave. She glared over at Harry who was calmly sipping tea, seemingly ignoring her irritation.

She stared down at the food and suddenly decided she wasn't going to take this. With a thought she summoned her telekinetic power and ripped her seat apart, sending shards of wood everywhere and breaking out of whatever had been holding her. With another thought she was able to keep herself from falling and stood there, smiling happily. "Well, I've had enough, thanks for the meal Mr. Potter."

Harry calmly put down his tea and waved a hand, repairing the chair as everyone else, especially Charles which had no idea what was going on, looked on in surprise. Then he looked up at her and said blandly "Of course you know, this means war."

Jean smirked at him moving off to grab her backpack. "Bring it on Mr. Potter, bring it on." Scott gaped at her, wondering where the sudden violence came from but Kitty and Rogue both laughed with her, having tried to leave with food still on their plates the day before.

Ororo giggled a little, causing the others to all look at her in surprise, never having heard her giggle before. With that Jean walked off leaving Harry to explain what was happening to the others, and was picked up by Duncan at the front gates. Everyone else soon followed, the other kids piling into Scott's car other than Evan and Kurt, who skateboarded again.

* * *

Lance Alvers, pro-tem field leader of the Brotherhood of Mutants (well they called themselves that, to everyone else they were just the Brotherhood, which was still cool but not as all-inclusive) saw Kitty Pryde at her locker. He noticed a smile on her face and wondered what was up. Deciding to see what was up he left Toad and Blob where they were, motioning them to continue into the classroom. Pietro was off flirting with someone, and this left Lance alone to talk to the X-girl.

As he neared he saw Nightcrawler, in his image inducer-created body step up to the locker next to her. When he saw the others boys chest he laughed aloud, alerting them both to his presence. "Who's a Marauder, and why'd you try to prank him?"

Kurt looked at the other boys questioningly then gaped as Kitty broke into giggles looking away from him. Kurt frowned and looked down at his chest and saw the prhase Harry had printed there, still visible somehow and looking as if it had been spray painted on his shirt. "V-hat the, how'd he do that?"

"He, he who?" Lance asked, suddenly worried. _I hope the x-dorks didn't get another member, we're outnumbered as it is._

Kitty frowned but quickly realized that she could tell the other boy, who had tried to help her in his own way when her powers activated, the truth here. "He's our new history teacher and cook at the institute, though I wouldn't make fun of that if I were you, he might be a bit touchy about it."

Lance latched onto the most important part of that, and connected the dots from how sore all the X-kids had been yesterday. "Teacher?" He leaned in toward the two of them, keeping his novice low. "Is he the reason you all were so battered yesterday?" Jean had even gotten a medical exception for cheerleader training (hell, he might not like her, but he was a hot-blooded young man and never missed a cheerleader practice, high kicks + hot chicks in short skirts = yay!) and the others had looked sore and slow.

Kitty nodded, while Kurt frowned, feeling his sore ribs in remembrance. "Ja, he dealt with all of us easily." He looked up eyeing Lance shrewdly, "Even once taking us on with no powers, just military training."

Lance blinked in shock at that but discounted it as the x-people having gotten cocky or plain stupid. "But he's a teacher right…. Wait is he the guy that jock Duncan was making jokes about this morning?" Lance shared several classes and a homeroom with two of the football star's friends, and had heard him talking about… "The dunce described him as gay or something?"

Kitty giggled and Kurt shook his head. "Not from how vell he and Ms. Monroe are getting along. And Jean said that he and Duncan traded some barbs or something when he dropped her off last night." Kurt didn't actually like Duncan all that much, but he was prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt since he was going out with Jean. Kitty on the other hand thought they were all wrong for one another, but didn't really see a way to say it without being shot down by the slightly older redhead.

Lance whistled. "Damn it would take serious balls to mess with that lady." He wasn't kidding, on his 'don't piss off' list Storm was higher than anyone but Mystique. Wolverine would smack you down and maybe hurt you, but getting fried by a lightning bolt and then smacked around with gale force winds was worse. Still he had the information he wanted. He was going to continue talking to Kitty for a bit but the bell rang for the next class and he cursed under his breath and turned away.

* * *

The rest of the day passed uneventfully for those at the Institution until the kids came home, each of the adults working on their own projects. Logan worked on the places defenses, while Harry prepared what he would need for Kitty's lessons, and exploring what all the laptop Mr. Richards had given him could do. It turned out this was quite a lot, and he spent the rest of the day playing with the interactive 3-d system it projected around his room. He only pulled himself away to great the kiddies as they came through the door.

When she saw him Kitty immediately grabbed Harry and pulled him along shouting excitedly. "So what are we going to learn today, like this is so exciting!"

Harry laughed a little and said, "Well first were going to do your physical exercises and then were going to do some work in the Danger Room and then we'll see if you can activate a simple runic array."

In her exercises, Harry had Kitty building up endurance are running, as well as working on her speed. Then in the Danger room Harry had her test her phasing power by phasing her hand through different energies, much like the lightning attack he had used on her. This didn't turn out very well, as she was only able to face through coherent light attacks, like Scott's beams or laser beams. Other powers impacted her such as magic and surprisingly lightning/electrical attacks, though the impact of lightning was greatly reduced. Fire, water and other things passed right through her.

After that, they adjourned to his room and Harry began to talk about runes and what they could accomplish, giving a brief outline of their abilities and history as well as the four runic languages he knew and why it was a BAD IDEA to mix them (explosions were the usual result and the best you could hope for, both he and Hermione had tried it).

He then brought out a simple one, which was attached to a light and was intended to simply power the light by creating a small electrical current. To his surprise, she was able to make it work, but only after Harry had powered the rune by putting in some of his own magical power. "Interesting," he said thoughtfully. "So you would be able to activate them, but you wouldn't be able to actually power them. So if you ever get to the point of creating your own runic arrays you'd have to get me to power them before use…. Hmmm…." He trailed off thinking of ways to power the runes without magic, something he hadn't thought about before as he had been busy trying to find ways to recreate the effects and abilities of his crisis suit with technology rather than magical arrays.

Kitty was a little irritated, but also ecstatic. "So like if we are able to create stuff you'll power it and I'll be able to use it?"

Harry scratched his hair for a moment then nodded, "pretty much, but everything we create that way will be a one shot, you'd need to get me to power them again after each use." For the next few hours the two of them started to talk about runes, and what you could do with them and what runic arrays were.

Kitty was absolutely fascinated with magic, and wondered how the hell it obeyed the laws of energy, but decided that she wouldn't question a good thing.

They went down for dinner, and as Harry was entering the kitchen Kitty asked innocently, "So Harry you have a copy of the runic array that's used for brooms and other flying things right?"

Harry paused and nodded, looking at her, "yes why?"

"Well I was just wondering if like, you could you put them on something else like a suit or something? That way you could fly and still have your hands free." And she and the X-men could all get similar suits and be able to fly, which would just be damn awesome.

Harry gaped at her for a moment then solemnly turned and started banging his head against the frame of the door. "Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid!"

Storm came in at that point and the others after her, having just finished their language lesson for the evening, except for Jean, who had not returned yet. "Whatever is wrong with him?" She asked, pointing at Harry.

Kitty giggled a little. "Like I think I just explained something really obvious to him that he had missed." Harry's reply was unintelligible, but was almost certainly vulgar.

* * *

A few days passed like this, with Harry using the time when the kids weren't around on his own projects and research, sparring with Logan or Storm, and discussing politics and history with them and Charles. Well, that, and pranking all and sundry with Kurt's willing assistance. Logan woke up to find his hair had been changed into an afro, Charles had his wheelchair changed to look like a mini car complete with vroom noises every time it moved and Kitty and Rogue found their hairstyles switched. Thankfully all of these pranks only lasted a few hours, and as everyone, even the pranked (bar Logan of course) got a kick out of it Charles didn't ask Harry to stop, much like his ongoing feud with Jean about her diet.

Harry started each of the kid's personal training exercises and Charles was impressed by how Harry was able to personalize these lessons to each of their needs, above and beyond going over each of their AARs from his battles with them. He walked Rogue through various exercises while wearing his crisis suit, which allowed them to actually practice against one another. Kurt he had do blind jumps with his eyes closed to build up his sense of space. He also would randomly throw things at him to make him working on his dodging skills. He had both of them look at modern weapons as well, much like Scott, something Logan agreed with fervently, though Charles had his doubts about it. He made Evan study sword styles and made him practice his aiming and the speed he could pull out his bone weapons as well as the variety.

Jean on the other hand he took a completely different approach to. He would show her various spells and effects and ask her to figure out ways to counter or duplicate them, thus building up her attack repertoire. He also had her hold up large weights with her power, building up the amount of power she had, treating it like every other muscle. Jean was surprised by how fast this worked, and by the end of the first lesson she was lifting 500 pound objects and had a far vaster number of attacks (she especially liked her version of the rifela and bombarda spells) and effects she could create through her telekinetic powers. All this on top of exercising with Logan and their school work had all the kids exhausted, but all of them knew they were also getting stronger.

This routine was interrupted however when Evan began to create a video project of his home life to make up for failing to properly do a project for his literature course. He began to run into problems almost immediately however as certain rooms couldn't be entered any longer. One of the first projects Charles, once he learned of their interest had Harry and Kitty do with runic arrays was to create a no male zone around and in the girl's bathroom. Apparently one of the guys had accidentally used at one point, and nearly walked in on a few of the girls, something none of them were happy about. More, as a telepath Charles was well aware of what young people could get up to given the opportunity, and all of his charges were energetic and good looking teens. so he thought it best to try and nip that sort of thing in the bud as it would interfere with the team dynamic.

Thus when Evan went to try to record Jean in the bathroom combing her hair, (or more, he refused to be drawn on this point and the twitching of his aunt's eyebrows indicated that silence was the best policy) he couldn't get in. When he tried to open the door he found himself frozen in place, much like Kurt had been when he tried to get into Harry's luggage. When Jean opened the door to find him there she marched him straight down to the others and made him promise on pain of pain not to do it again.

He persevered and was close to having a final product to turn in when he lost the video camera for a few hours when he was at school. It was stolen for those few hours by a man named Sabertooth. Sabertooth was an old foe of Logan, whose history was as wide and varied as Logan's, and their relationship was complex yet at the very same time very simple: they loathed one another. However at the behest of Charles Evan hadn't bothered recording Harry at all, which would prove detrimental to Sabertooth in his attack on the mansion.

* * *

Sabertooth ripped the gates leading up to the plush mansion and raced down the road snarling in anger and growing battle lust. _Little bastard must be living it up in a place like this, well that's just one more reason for me to kill him!_

However between one step and the next he found himself in the air. He looked around realizing he'd been grabbed by a telekinetic or something and he saw two kids, one teen the other college age. The teen had strange white locks of hair in her brown hair and grey eyes while the other had messy black hair and emerald eyes which at the moment were looking up at him questioningly. "You know in polite society when visiting a house you're supposed to knock. And possibly call ahead."

Sabertooth snarled and tried to break out of whatever was holding him and the man frowned but that was all then raised a hand and suddenly Sabertooth couldn't even move a muscle

Harry chuckled pleased this man didn't have any of Logan's magical immunity. It gave more credence to the idea that it was the metal that was part of Wolverine's skeleton and its properties that gave him the immunity to most of his low to medium spells. Oh, his healing factor was why he didn't take much damage from attack spells, but it was the metal that protected him from most of the other types of spells. The only one of those he'd dared try that worked, beyond the ones that weren't too powerful for him to want to try on a ally, was the shatter-shaker. "Hmm, now what to do with you Mr. Growly… Rogue what do you think, change him to some kind of pastel coloration? Or perhaps remodel him to match those bloody sparkly vampire pictures Kitty has up on her wall?"

Sabertooth gaped at that while Rogue chuckled, however before he could do anything Logan burst out of the main house in his uniform and charged down the road toward them. Sabertooth growled louder than ever seeing the enemy he had been hunting for so long coming toward him but try as he might he couldn't break the paralysis holding him in place.

Wolverine stopped almost directly below him and turned to Harry. "Nice job Harry, now let him go and we can finish this!"

"Finish what exactly, and who is Mr. Growly up there anyway?"

"Victor up there and I go way back kid, we've been rivals and enemies for more years than I can count. The specifics none of ya need to know, just know he's a killer without any conscience, a beast more than a man, a traitor and more! He found me this time by stealing Evan's stupid video cam." Evan, who along with Scott and the others (besides Jean who was still at cheerleader practice) flinched a little at that, but his aunt put a comforting hand on his shoulder. This calmed him down for now but he was still a little embarrassed about how badly he had screwed up. But Logan ignored the impact of his words and went on. "Now I have a chance here and now to finish this."

Harry nodded, looking up at the wild man with his head cocked. If Logan's words were true than it would be a good thing to kill the man now, but this could just be a personal thing between the two older men, and he well knew that Logan wasn't any kind of saint. Hell, when it came down to it Harry wasn't a saint either. "Well, I suppose we could take the two of you down to the danger room throw you in and see what happens, but…"

_There will be no finishing or needless bloodshed today. _Those words shot through everyone but Harry standing there. Telepathic communication was a literal meeting of the minds, and Charles couldn't find Harry's mind to connect with, yet Harry could tell from the expressions of those around him what was going on. Charles came down the driveway wheeling himself down. Scott saw this and hurried back to help push but Charles merely nodded at him and went on, now communicating verbally rather than telekinetically. "I will not have anyone killed here today, nor fighting of any kind that might result in a death on my property." He looked at Harry and Logan sharply, both of whom looked a little abashed, the one for coming up with the idea and the other for thinking it was a good idea. "No, I will merely erase the memories of this mansion and then we can drop him somewhere else, maybe up in Canada. Nor will I allow you to go after him Logan. You know as well as I do that any match between the two of you would be so equal as to make the victor a matter of chance more than skill. And I won't allow you to take such a chance needlessly."

Harry frowned at how easily Xavier mentioned modifying memories, but reluctantly agreed it was a solution. Not the one he would use but still a solution. Logan growled a little but also nodded and once he saw that Charles went on. "Now, Harry if you can keep him under control for a little longer we can go now." Harry nodded and with a wave of his hand Sabertooth began to move toward the mansion, still held in the air by his original leviosa spell.

Ororo went ahead to start up their jet, and with that the crisis was solved easily, thanks to the spells of a mage and the fact he had been out running with Rouge when Sabertooth showed up. The man named Victor Creed would wake up in the mountains of Canada with vague memories of a monster sized binge in his mind. It would be many weeks before he would once more try to find Wolverines trail.

* * *

That, however, was the only bit of exercise in excitement for the week, and everything else continued apace. That peace however was once more broken when Jean became fed up with her lack of progress at learning occlumency and decided to ask for more help from Harry. After a particularly trying day with the cheerleader squad (who the hell knew girls were just as perverted as men) she burst into Harry's room as he was changing after spending another morning talking to Ororo.

He turned and said thoughtfully "Maybe I should've put a ward on my room as well. Was there something you needed?"

Jean blushed a little, staring at the hard muscles and scars that Harry had on display very thankful that he already had his pants on. She turned a little and said, "Can you help me some more with my mental defenses? I haven't gotten past the first chapter yet of that book you gave me."

What she wasn't going to say was that her powers were fluctuating a little lately. While the exercises Harry had taught were helping her telekinetic control and power immensely, her telepathy was acting up. Often times in stressful situations, such as when she was dealing with the fact that her boyfriend might be a bit of a bully (practically every day), or when the brotherhood was acting up at school or even during cheer-leading practice, she could hear the thoughts of other people without even trying to. She was getting sick and tired of hearing the thoughts of her fellow girls during that time in particular, who knew they were such… such whiny snippy bitches! It was making her wonder why she was even on the team in the first place.

Harry frowned thoughtfully as he pulled the shirt over his head and turned to look at her. Her progress in their first session had convinced him she was a natural, but it had been a week and if she still wasn't past the first chapter, then there might be something blocking her progress, some thought or other that she couldn't get passed. "I could check how well you're doing in organizing your mind and your defenses," he said slowly. "I could also show you my mind as an example, but I'm not certain if you would be comfortable with that. Going into someone else's mind isn't really something you should do on a whim, especially when you're not certain if you can control yourself. You might find yourself seeing things you don't want to see. Also, remember occlumency was designed for wizards, you might just have done as much of it as a non-magical can do. Are you sure you want to do this Red?"

Jean nodded her head emphatically. "I've got a few tests coming up in a week and I need to know that I can keep out other people's thoughts." _And I have a cheerleading competition coming up too. _She thought grimly, _and I __**really **__don't want to hear the other team's thoughts at all if my own team is any kind of example._

Harry nodded reluctantly and motioned her over to the chair by the one desk. He sat down on the floor in front of her, and said softly "all right, I'm going to fold away my invisibility cloak. See if you can find my mind."

Jean nodded and pushed a focused tendril of her telepathy forward, touching the older boys mind. A moment later she found herself in the astral plane, standing in front of a large, well kept and very sturdy looking house. The door opened a little and she went in. She blinked as she found a mental representation of Harry standing there waiting for her. As he wasn't a telepath he couldn't traverse the astral realm, and had to directly link minds without that medium, so had simply been waiting for her. She came in and looked around, amazed at the detail and the organization she saw.

Harry however well knew what could happen if he allowed her to just roam around and brought her attention to the outer walls of his house. "If you're interested in shoring up your defenses, then you need to start with a strong foundation. Look, see here" he waved her over to look at the walls, motioning towards where they met the floor. "You can imagine whatever you wants as a defense, as long as you can imagine the details enough to make it real." With a gesture the paint peeled back to show the brick and concrete underneath. "The problem is it takes a lot of concentration to do at first, which is why you need to start by organizing and clearing your mind of clutter. After you have a first defense set up you can add to it later, but the foundation is the most important part.

Jean nodded, that matched what she had seen in the next few chapters of the book he had loaned her and she looked at the wall, shaking her head slightly. "The problem is I can organize my thoughts okay, but I'm having a lot of problems doing the same with my emotions and memories for some reason. Is there any kind of quick fix I can use for a few days to get me through a week or so?"

Harry sighed. "I wish you could have told me about this sooner, I could have been working on a ward for you like I am for Ororo and Rogue. The problem is, you're not really asking me to keep other minds out, you want to keep your own mind in, and that would be a whole different working. Maybe you need to change whatever image you're using for defense?"

"Could you take a look at it? I would ask the professor, but all he says is I just need to concentrate on control more." Honestly the professor seemed frazzled recently, the mystery of figuring out Harry's mutant power seemed to be taking up much of his time, and so he hadn't been free to help her as much as she could wish. More, he had easily mastered occlumency from the books Harry gave him, but like many geniuses had trouble explaining the process to others.

Harry hesitated then nodded. "Sure, though you'll have to bring me in with you, I'm pants at legelimancy, can't control I at all, and I don't think you'd want that." Jean nodded and grasped his hand firmly, pulling his astral projection out into the astral realm and into her own mind.

It wasn't anywhere near as organized as Harry's of course. Small books, magazines and other items were scattered around haphazardly, and a bare foundation of stones circled the area they were in to make what looked like the base of a tower of some sort. But what grabbed his attention was that there were several memories, he guessed they were memories anyway in the shape of books, they could have been anything really, locked down tight under chains and bolted to the ground. Underneath them there was what looked like a badly patched over fissure.

Jean waved her hand around in exasperation. "This is as far as I've gotten, and as you can see, I haven't made much progress." Her astral from walked right through one of the odd, overly defended things as if she couldn't see it, and Harry's eyes narrowed for a moment before purposefully looking away. He followed her, looking around feigning interest as his mind worked. There was obviously more going on here than he thought, that wasn't natural, that Jean was unable to see part of her mind, and he determined to have a very serious conversation with Xavier before doing anything else.

After a suitable interval he sighed shaking his head. "well from what I can tell you're making good progress, even if it isn't going as fast as you want it to. I would concentrate on your mental defenses for now, once you have prepared the rest of your mind you can tear them down again and rebuild them around the new organization. Try different concepts and ideas, maybe that is what is holding you up, don't try to follow my example of walls and an invisibility cloak, that won't work for you, not if you want to keep your own powers to yourself." He suggested a few things, mostly creatures and foliage that could 'catch' errant thoughts and telepathic spurts and rein them in. Jean sighed, realizing there wasn't going to be an easy fix for her, and agreed to try them all out some other time. With that the two broke apart, with Jean none the wiser to Harry's inner anger.

* * *

The next day was a Saturday, the second such Harry had since he moved in with the x-men and the day he would lead the kids in their first joint exercise under him. But he had something more pressing to see to first. As soon as the kids were gone with Logan on a endurance run Harry entered the professor's office, face carefully blank, but his eyes glittering with power.

Charles looked up from looking at their monthly electric bill and smiled pleasantly. "Yes Harry, what can I do for you?"

Harry didn't answer until he sat down in the chair in front of the other man's desk. He interlaced his fingers over his chest, leaning back a little before looking at the older man with a level eyed stare before speaking in controlled tone of voice. "As you know, in my world we didn't have mutants, we didn't have people with eye beams. we didn't have telepathy or telekinetic powers, we had magic, which in practice could achieve some of the same effects.. One of the most controlled and regulated magical disciplines were mind magics, and they fell under two main headings. The one whose books I loaned you and jean, and the opposite legilemency, the spells used to mentally attack or search another persons mind. There were so many laws about it because of the damage you could do to a mind, worse and longer lasting than the imperio, a spell designed to override the will of a person for a set amount of time. After all if it's a foreign voice in your head you can fight back, but if your own thoughts betray you, what can you do against that? One of the worst things, one that could see anyone immediately executed no matter who you were, if there was any evidence at all that it was true, was creating mental blocks on someone else without their knowledge."

Charles frowned a little wondering where this was going and fearing he already knew as harry went on inexorably. "Imagine my surprise when Jean comes to me and asks for help in setting up her mental defenses and when I enter her mind I see what could only be a major mental block on her, cutting her off from either memories or emotions or something else. Now, I'm a fair man, and I always want to give someone time to explain themselves If they can. So you have precisely 5 minutes to explain to me why you put a block on her before I decide to remove your brain via your eyeballs."

End chapter

* * *

First major difference of opinion coming up as you can see. Hope everyone liked how all the characters interacted

While some of this chapter basically wrote itself, hence my putting it out at all, other aspects irritated the bleep out of me, such as trying to figure out how the astral realm worked and how Harry would/would not interact with it.

I was asked in a pm who the main villains that Harry will deal with will be. I will say that he will have a bit of hate-hate relationship with Thanos, and he will be dealing with several alien races, specifically Shiar and Brood (oohhh boy). But his first major, and I mean knock down drag out uber serious from beginning to end enemy/arc will be when Genosha starts to come into being. I am mixing x-men evolution and regular x-men, but one thing they had in common was that at the very beginning of the series mutants were becoming more and more known as time went on, so the idea that Genosha was up and running at the same time Charles got his movement into gear was always a little strange to me. Harry will be more international and will deal with Genosha one way or another before it can become the economic power it was in the comics.


	5. I don't think he meant that as

I don't own Potter or Marvel

I have decided to do something a little different with the chapter headings of this story from now on. I will take a single quote from the chapter that I think shows what the chapter is about rather than try to come up with a single sentence to describe it, which was getting pretty boring.

* * *

**Chapter 5 Er, I don't think he meant that as a challenge**

Charles knew that this was going to be a touchy subject for some reason, and so decided to see if he could calm the situation down frist. "Might I ask why Jean came to you for more help, I thought that she was doing well with her mental exercises."

"She said she was still having trouble keeping out other people's stray thoughts and emotions. And I have to say given the state of her mental defenses that was understating things, if she didn't have as much control of her powers as she did it would be far worse. Now answer the question Charles." Harry said grimly, his eyes locked on Xavier's like a cannon's aiming sights.

An apt description as it turned out because when Charles tried to say "Mr. Potter I am an expert in matters of the mind. So in the interest of saving time let me simply assure you it is for the good of both Jean and everyone…"

"DO NOT USE THAT LINE WITH ME!" Harry shouted suddenly, bringing his hands down on the professors wooden desk, and with a surge of magic large wooden claws grew out of the desk and swiftly surrounded Charles's head, while another two reached out and grabbed him, pinning him in place. Charles leaned back carefully, belatedly realizing that his words must have sounded like the old man Harry sometimes mentioned when he talked about his adventures in his home dimension, the one he called Bumblemore. Harry had often mentioned how he had cloaked his agenda in something he called the greater good, which was dangerously close to the words the professor had unwittingly used. _Note to self, watch how I word things around Mr. Potter from now on._

Harry stood up, nearly incandescently angry. "I have heard that line far too often before to trust it! 'Harry I assure you professor Snape has my full confidence' , 'Harry for the greater good you must forgive and forget', 'Harry I assure you, I have nothing but your best interests at heart'!"

He sat down abruptly, covering his eyes with one hand, breathing in and out as he tried to calm down. "Sorry about that Charles, you just, just hit a button I didn't know I still had. But I am not a child, nor am I going to be put off by polite, vague assurances. Just tell me straight out why you did it please."

Charles looked at the wooden claws still surrounding his head and decided to simply answer the younger man. "The first time I meet young Miss Grey, her powers had barely been awake for a little less than a week. Yet it was not her power that I first sensed through Cerebro, but a… foreign entity that had housed itself in her brain. It had been there for some time, and I could not expel it. I was worried how it would affect her mind and abilities and I was forced to seal it away from the rest of her mind."

Harry brought his hand down to stare at the older man. "And you're certain that it is a foreign entity? I didn't see any sign of that when I was in her mind."

"Positive," said Charles firmly.

Harry frowned a little. "And did you try to talk to whatever it was?"

"No. As far as I could tell, it is incapable of speech, or its though processes are too different from our own for us to communicate with."

Harry leaned back thinking hard. He visualized Jeans mind again as it had been when she brought his astral projection into it. He didn't really think the books he saw chained down were the sign of a foreign entity, and the fissure in her mind below her…. _that could be the sign of some kind of foreign influence, but I don't know. _ The point was he didn't really know one way or another, though he thought having whatever was in those books locked away would have an effect on Red's personality. And something else about it was bothering him, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. _Still there is something more important to discuss now_. "Okay, so why haven't you told her about it?"

"Again I was afraid how knowing about it would effect her mind."

"That might have been a good idea when she was younger," Harry replied sternly, "but not now that she is an adult, albeit barely." He smirked a little, and outside Jean sneezed, wondering why she suddenly had the urge to smack Mr. Potter upside his head. "Why haven't you told her about it?" His eyes widened suddenly as if he had only just noticed the transfigured claws poised to gut Charles and he put his hands on the desk gently. A second later the claws began to recede and his desk returned to normal.

Charles nodded in thanks before sighing. "I would prefer to wait until her mind is fully formed to talk to her about it. That way she will be strong and able to repel its influence. I want my X-men to have normal childhoods, or as near as they can until they graduate high school."

Harry gripped his chair's arms very firmly and counted slowly to ten before responding. Even so his magic got away from him for a moment and a few knickknacks on a shelf in the huge bookshelf that dominated one wall suddenly changed shape. Some became little robins, others changed from metal to glass, but strangely it was the glass creatures that were moving around, while the robins turned out to be stuffed Charles noticed this out of the corner of his mind and realized he had said something again that could have set Harry off if he hadn't been able to control himself.

As soon as he was calm again he said, "Ignoring the question of that even being possible given their powers or if there is in fact something like a 'normal childhood', that's a nice sentiment **professor**" and was it just Charles or did that word come out with some vitriol behind it? "But you are falling into two classic traps. The first is keeping secrets from your own partisans, something you shouldn't ever do, because when secrets come out they will breed dissatisfaction and distrust. The second is one of assumption. You assume she would not rather know sooner, that she isn't ready for it now. Bloody hell man, this is her fucking head we're talking about!"

Charles frowned. "I'm sorry Harry, but that is my decision to make. I do not believe Jean is mature enough just yet to handle learning about this."

Harry glared at him then said abruptly. "Three weeks." Charles blinked in surprise and Harry went on, "You have three weeks to tell her about it professor or I will." Charles opened his mouth to protest this unilateral decision but Harry went on inexorably. "Jean is an adult now, and she has a right to know what is going on in her own mind. I refuse to hide something like that from her, hell from anyone." _Who knows what kind of damage a block like that is doing to her, _he thought angrily. _I don't bloody care if there is some kind of alien entity inside her, those books aren't foreign, they look like any other mental block, and I know damn well that blocks can be dangerous. _ "The only reason I'm giving you that time is because she knows and trusts you more than me, and you're the one who put it there in the first place. No professor, three weeks, I'll give you that much time to think up how to tell her but if you don't I will. After all you have no idea whether or not you sealed other parts of her psyche along with whatever this thing was, and what danger that could be doing to her." Leaving that thought hanging in the air Harry got up and left, leaving a suddenly concerned telepath behind him.

* * *

Harry walked into the danger room to the sound of a water balloon falling down on his head from above. He raised a hand and with a wordless leviosa sent it spinning back to Kurt, who caught it deftly, grinning. "Nice try Blue boy but a little unoriginal."

He walked forward then suddenly levitated over a hole in the ground covered by a tarp and filled with paint that had been set up right by the entrance. "That was a little better, but you must try harder to prank the master, grasshopper."

Kitty giggled then ran up and looped one arm around one of Harry's dragging him forward to where the rest were waiting in a clearing in a forest the Danger Room had created, just like the trap and the balloon of course. "Hey, teach, what are you gonna have us do today?"

Harry chuckled most of his ill humor disappearing by the exuberance these two were putting out though some of his irritation came back when he saw Jean with the others, stretching out quietly along with Rogue. He smirked a little as he saw Scott trying desperately to keep his eyes away from her and Rogue while Evan not so openly goggled, as the spandex uniform they all wore may have covered their bodies and obsruced the details but what they did show was enough considering how fit they were. That brought another question to his mind. "Why are you all wearing spandex anyway? I just don't get that. The FF did too, must be a yank thing."

Jean rolled her eyes while the others all looked at one another and shrugged. Scott straightened up as Harry walked toward them, frowning at Kitty still hanging off one of his arms. "All X-men present and accounted for sir."

It was Harry's turn to roll his eyes, but then he became more serious. "Alright you lot, I realize I said I wanted to go over your AAR's with you before having a team drill but I decided to see if you had learned anything in action before that, so we're heading straight into the team exercises. We'll have five sessions designed to help you learn tactics and teamwork. Each session will give you an objective and pit you against me using a team of Danger Room created robots. First up will be you against me and a company of regular troops protecting a computer disk in a building over there." He pointed away to the southeast through the computer generated forest. "Your objective will be to get the disk and get out." He looked down, ruffled Kitty's hair a little and stepped back as the Danger Room changed a little. He walked behind a tree and disappeared. _Now, let's see what the kids have learned so far?_

* * *

Scott slapped his hands together briskly. "Alright! Let's plan this out a little more thoroughly this time. Kitty, you'll be the scout on this one, with Kurt guarding our sides. Rogue, Jean and I'll be in the center until we encounter resistance. Then we'll start to knock out the opposition, find one of the officers for Rogue to drain for his memoires, while Kitty moves off to grab the disk once we have a map of the building." Rogue frowned a little, knowing that was really the only use her powers could give against regular troops. Oh sure she could use her powers to knock them out, but that was about it, she couldn't drain their powers and use them as her own because they didn't have any.

Jean frowned suddenly then turned around and blasted a tree behind them apart with her telekinetic powers. The tree shattered with an explosive crack of released energy that sent the pieces of the trunk stabbing into and through the trooper crouching hidden behind it with a radio. She stomped over looking down at it as it faded from sight. "Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me, Mr. Potter!" She turned back to look at the others. "Okay we can continue now." For some reason she felt a little elated by that bit of mayhem. "Maybe we should switch up those orders a bit, since that 'trooper' probably relayed all of what you just said to the opposition."

Scoot blanched a little at the surprising violence but nodded. "Alright, in that case we should switch it up, Kurt you're our scout, bamf out a hundred feet or so then come back every three times to report to us until you find where the enemy forces are. We'll still send Kitty in to grab the disk though." Kitty frowned a little at that as did Jean but she nodded. After all, if these were regular troops they wouldn't be able to stop her from ghosting through everything to get to the objective, once they knew where it was anyway.

Kurt nodded and bamfed away heading in the direction Harry had indicated as the others made their way after him.

* * *

Harry smiled as the robot radioing him the little planning session died. _Well, whatever else Red still seems able to learn, regardless of that thing in her head. Grrr, shake it off Potter and get your own bloody head in the game._

His company of 250 infantrymen were broken up into squads of course and he had placed most of them around the building, which looked like any normal military building, square squat and dull, with three in the building itself. Now if he knew the kids they would go for the old flash and feint with Kitty going for the disk on her lonesome. It was a good plan if the opponents didn't know what her powers were, an assumption that could eventually get her killed, so the electrical current going through the walls, floors and ceiling of the room that held the computer disk meant that wouldn't work. The question was what they would do when that happened, and how they would go about bringing the flash. He made his way up to the roof to better direct the action, a dedicated com man next to him to relay his orders and around the roof were a squad of snipers.

Not ten minutes later a red beam of light lanced out smashing into one of the foxholes and throwing men hither and yon. "I wonder if One-eye would be so quick to overpower his eye beams like that if these were real troops, have to ask about adding some more realism to these things. Ah well." He turned to his com man. "Contact front, have third and fifth squads break contact, reform behind the base and move out in skirmish formation to flank on left and right respectively. 1st,2nd,4th, hold positions and lay down covering fire, wildly uncontrolled bursts, overload them if you can. Snipers, priority targets are the redhead or the man with the eye beams."

The clearing erupted to the sound of gunfire as his robotic troops obeyed him and Harry shook his head, thankful once more for having been put through the SAS small unit tactics course, even if it made the phrase 'hell week' far more real than he had ever wanted it to be. Only he and Neville had survived to the end, with their larger than average magical cores to sustain them rather than sleep. Neville was exhausted by the end of the week, Harry remembered fondly, while he was still good to go physically but not mentally. Below his vantage point the battle continued as more red beams lanced out joined by dozens of bone spears from Spyke.

Over her strong objections Marvel Girl had been assigned defense. With her kinetic power she was able to slow, stop or redirect the bullets coming at them, but there were hundreds of bullets coming toward them and suddenly it got worse as two snipers found the range, their rounds moved faster and were heavier, thus harder for her to stop. Scott and Evan were trying to keep the troops head's down, but the troopers were two spread out for Scott to take more than a few out with each blast, and Evan could only hit them as fast as he could throw his spears. He was much more of a close range fighter.

Cyclops knew it too and ordered Kitty to make her way forward before barking out orders to the others. "Nightcrawler, take Rogue and get in close, knock as many of them out as possible. Spyke charge forward and get in among them too, Marvel Girl and I will stay here and…"

At that point the two squads Harry had moved around to pincer them got into firing range and Jean went down, unable to protect from that many bullets from that many directions. The Danger Room announced her death in its normal mechanical tone: Marvel Girl, mission kill."

Cyclops at that point forgot the mission and turned to see the redhead down on the ground. "Marvel Girl!" He ran over, leaning down to check to see if she was alright and fell down dead, taking several bullets in the back. "Cyclops, mission kill." Scott groaned, smacking his head on the ground but he turned to see if Jean was alright. Despite taking numerous 'gunshots' she was, and she was glaring at him angrily. Scott gulped, and shifted away a little as he saw her hand starting to glow a little.

Meanwhile Evan had been pinned down in the open, unable to survive being shot and with no cover fire. Eventually he was pinned and killed joining his teammates. Rogue lasted longer where she had been dropped off by a wildly teleporting Nightcrawler, but she still went down.

Kitty too was soon caught by the electricity sparking over everything in the room with the targeted disk in it. She cursed and began to bang her head against the wall as soon as the Danger Room marked her as mission killed. "Damnit I should have known, Harry was the one to help me figure out I had a problem with electricity, of course he'd use it to protect the disk!"

Nightcrawler lasted far longer, bamfing from place to place and even taking out all the snipers and a dozen of the troopers using the martial arts skill Logan had been pounding into him. Eventually thought he too went down, 'stabbed' by two of the men he had tried to take out.

Harry shook his head, smiling a little. The kids had learned a little, but not much just yet. Still, that was what these little exercises were for. "Danger Room cancel simulation and give me a sitting room big enough for all of us here. Oh and tally up how many troopers I lost. Come on lads and lasses quit laying there feeling sorry for yourselves." The youngsters all groaned but complied, with Jean still glaring daggers at Scott who was hunching his shoulders, but his jaw was clenched mulishly.

The Danger Room responded, forming a large sitting room where they each had comfy chairs facing where harry lounged out on another chair. Kurt was the first to collapse into his chair, already exhausted by the number of teleports he had done in so short a time during the session. The Danger Room spoke up as the others took their seats. "Total number of kills, 118, numbers broken down, Nightcrawler, 40, Shadowcat, zero, Rogue, 7, Marvel Girl, 1, Evan, 22, Cyclops, 48."

"Not bad, not great but not bad. These DR created troops weren't exactly reacting like a normal human unit, either good or bad." Harry said.

Evan nodded. "Yeah, I think this exercise is still good but the troopers need to react better. I mean, we've all been in fights against the brotherhood, and we know that people normally grunt or yell when they get hit. I don't know what noises people would make if they were, y'know, being killed but still. And wouldn't there be a moment of panic or something, even if they knew what our powers were?"

Logan, who was as usual watching form his place in the control room spoke up over the speakers at that point. "We'll tweak the program to be more realistic going on punk. How realistic do you want it Potter?"

"As real as you can make it Logan. I want the next crew to act as lifelike as possible that means reacting for themselves and panicking, make that last bit a random thing in the program for the next batch." Harry turned his attention back to the kids. "Now what do you all think went wrong?"

Jean frowned not wanting to dress Scott down in front of the others, thinking it would be bad for the team dynamic. Kurt spoke up before any of the others. "We went in a little too cocky, again" he said that last word a little bitterly, as it really was a mistake they should have known by now to avoid. "And we didn't react to our opponents moves, just bulling ahead."

Harry nodded seriously. "Understand one thing above all else, learn this one lesson above all others. Flexibility beats out planning and brute force. Being flexible, able to change and take advantage of openings as soon as they appear is essential to winning any fight. Being prepared for any foreseeable chance is what makes a good tactician and leader."

Scott stiffened, knowing that dig was being sent his way and wondering what he could do to become better. Harry had indeed meant it that way. He had hoped to see more of Scott's leadership qualities, and they still had three of these exercises to go, but he was already coming to the conclusion that Scott just wasn't cut out to be the leader. He tired hard, and he quickly assumed that role, but that didn't make him the best for it.

Rogue spoke up, a little irritated by how useless she was against normal troops. Oh they just had to touch her for her powers to take them out, but that had proven easier to say than do. On the other hand boy was she thankful that the troops weren't really humans, that many sets of memories would've given her a hell of headache. "What would you have done then Mr. Potter?"

Harry smiled. He did want them all to call him that during these little sessions, it gave the whole experience a little more serious tone. "I would have had Kurt and Kitty scout out the perimeter then taken the snipers out of action with Scott's eye beams or Kurt teleporting Red in among them to take them out that way. Plus I was up there and without me to direct them the troops would have simply remained where they were dug in. After that you would have to fight your way through the building, but that would be easy enough with Kitty to scout for you."

"And what would you have done to combat that tactic?" Jean asked, breaking off her glaring at Scott to look at him.

"I would have spread the troops out a bit more and rigged the building with booby traps to counter Kitty's phasing ability." Harry answered promptly. "I might not have been on the defensive that often when I led the New Marauders against Moldyshorts, but I know how it's done. The SAS blokes that trained us were very bloody thorough, let me tell you." He stared off into the distance and for once he was smiling as he remembered. "And there are a few families minus their home but with all their members alive that wouldn't have been without that training."

The X-men all shared a look shivering a little. Up until the past few weeks none of them, even Scott hadn't really realized how serious being an X-man could get. But whenever Harry looked away like that at something no one else could see they were getting a pretty clear idea. It was different from Logan's gruff exterior and worldly ways, or Storm's calm, quiet and tested confidence. This was a young man, barely two years older than some of them, who had fought in a war and wore his scars on his sleeves and in his eyes and who was helping them to learn how to fight and survive, not because he believed in Charles' dream though they thought that was a part of it, but because he felt they would need it. They all vowed at that point to step up their game going forward. After all the brotherhood might be kids just like them, but who knew what other enemies were out there? The little powwow session continued for another fifteen minutes then they broke up for another session.

* * *

The kids did far better in the next session, which Harry had taken from World War II. They were a force of allied forces had to take out an artillery weapon by a certain time to allow a fleet attack the harbor it protected. This time however he warned them all that the opponents would be both regular troops and at three troops that could use the spells that Harry had already used in the Danger Room against them when he first arrived. They were given a map of the area, but no information about patrols, people, or anything else, but were told Harry would not be participating, as he wanted to see what they would do.

This allowed Scott to plan out the attack, and again Harry was not impressed by the fact that he didn't take into account any of the other teammate's suggestions. In fact, he ignored them, despite the fact that Jean and Kurt came up with very good ideas. Kurt's was a little out there, he thought they should not even bother to head into the fortress, but instead just get in front of the guns and melt them just enough so that none of the artillery shells could actually pass through the barrels. It was a good idea if you didn't take into account that there were patrols around the bottom of the cliffs at all times that checked in randomly, or that such a thing would be pretty obvious to the troops in the actual artillery hall. Again however none of the kids suggested sending off Kurt and Kitty to distract the guards, which would have been the best idea as these troops were programmed to not have a clue about the kid's powers. The solidarity the kids showed not thinking of splitting off to achieve the objective as two different groups was nice, but didn't help them actually achieve said objective and further showed their lack of experience and flexibility.

Instead, the group went with Scott's idea with very little in the way of discussion. His plan consisted of drawing out the defenders than taking out as many of them as they could before fading away, forcing ever more troops to come out until they were weakened enough to take on in a frontal assault. However, they seemed to forget that Harry had made the robots in this session act as human as possible so even without Harry actually participating they responded appropriately rather than as Evan called it, a stupid AI would like in RPG games, whatever the heck they were. Harry had never been able to play a computer game in his home dimension (he'd never even had access to a computer except in the public library), and had been far too busy since he arrived to play them. Instead of being drawn out in small groups, the defenders came out in force faster than the X-Men could respond to. The X-Men still won, performing excellently under fire without any snipers or attempts to encircle them and taking out two of the magic troopers which surprised Harry, but they still lost Nightcrawler, Rogue and Spyke before they could retreat. They did however take out one of the special troops, which impressed Harry.

Inside both Marvel Girl and Cyclops went down when the group ran into the last of the magic using troopers. Much like in the first session, Jean went down first overwhelmed by the magical blasts she had to keep away from them though she did take the magic trooper down with her, while Scott went completely to pieces when she went down and was easy prey to the guns of the rest of the troopers.

Harry groaned and looked up at the ceiling as Kitty, little innocent Kitty, was able to get through to place the bomb. Not only that she did it in a place where the troopers couldn't see it, and soon enough the bomb exploded, taking out the artillery pieces just in time to beat the timer.

"I don't know what Scott's thinking," he said to the air around him, "but I don't think he's winning any points when he goes all the pieces when Red goes down."

Storm replied from where she had joined Logan in watching over the sessions from the control room. "I think it's rather sweet," she said a little dubiously, "yet also very stupid, you're right."

"Pretty much what I thought too, well, the last part anyway." Harry ordered the danger room to cancel the present session, and walked over ruffling Kitty's hair approvingly. "Good job little one, way to keep your eyes on the ball!"

Kitty grinned staring up and wishing desperately again that he was a few years younger and thus datable, but alas it was not to be, and she had seen the looks he and Storm shared. Pity those eyes of his were sooo dreamy, and the rest of him wasn't bad either.

As the others gathered around Harry called Scott over to talk to him. Scott went still not certain what he had done for Jean to be glaring at him so much.

Harry put an arm around his shoulders drawing him in close and whispering into his ear "the next time you lose it because Red goes down I'm going to start pranking you mercilessly every hour for the rest of the week, including the time you spent at school. I will find a way believe me. There is more to these sessions than just you making googly eyes at her, and you're not making any points with her me or your other teammates. She doesn't seem to like the attention and all your other teammates can see your preference for her. They all can tell you'd choose her over them and that will effect teamwork and morale."

Scott flinched a little looking a little uncomfortable. "We shouldn't be doing these until were dead, anyway that doesn't teach us anything!" he exclaimed after a moment, ignoring the last few things that Harry mentioned.

"Life-and-death situations teach a hell of a lot more than situations where you can get back up again right away. Harry said calmly. "Just be glad I'm not putting you all through hell week." He smirked a little thinking of what would happen to them all. The only two he could think of that would make it even halfway through were Red and Bony, the first because she was damn stubborn, and the second because he seemed to have way more endurance than the others. Apparently, he was a bit of a basketball star, which probably explained it. "Just because you can't seem to keep thinking once Red goes down is no reason to stop the exercises." With that parting shot he brought Scott back over to the others.

"Alright, you achieved the objective, so that is technically a win." He shook his head sadly. "I'm not one who thinks like that however. I want everyone here to go into and come out of these little training sessions alive, just like in real life. Start taking these exercises seriously, because one day they might be. Every one of these exercises I'm throwing at you lot could be achieved and keep you all alive if you all put your heads together. Now we're going to go through this one again," he said looking over at all the others in pushing Scott forward to join them. "I want to see you guys learning from your mistakes."

The next two sessions were pretty much the same, only this time the kids had learned a bit. Expecting a massive response against their little probing attack they had prepared several ambush points, and between the two of them Evan and Scott were able to wipe out nearly the entire force that came out after them, even the two magic using troopers. As they were doing this Kitty, carrying Rogue, was popping in and out of the fortress grabbing the attention of the guards and taking out and draining any officers they found inside while Kurt teleported Jean up to the canyons where she destroyed them using her telekinetic powers. Casualties on their side included everyone but Kurt and Jean this time as Kitty was caught my a magic trooper, which was far better than before in planning but not perfect as they still took casualties. The second time Kitty and Rogue went in first taking out their officers and disorganizing the enemy, then the others attacked much as they had before. Without officers the reactions of the troopers was slow and chaotic, allowing Kurt and Jean to destroy the guns before the X-men lost anyone.

By this time the kids were getting tired, especially Kurt. All of the teleportation's he did in the first session and after were coming back to haunt him and he was exhausted. The others were bruised and battered and Kitty looked as if she was close to falling asleep. Phasing around with Rogue took a lot out of her. The only one who didn't was Jean, who looked almost as fresh as a daisy, as if she hadn't been using her powers and was constantly protecting herself and her friends from bullet swarms.

Harry looked at her briefly wondering if that was because of the strange powerful entity that Charles had reported was living inside of her, but shook it off for now. He had wanted to continue but looking at the kids he realized they were too tired to get the most out of what he had planned next. "All right," he said smacking his hands together. "I think we should call it a day. I'll go over you're AARs tonight, and see what you all think of your performances tomorrow, see if you think you solved the issues in your performance today. Then we'll each look over recording of today's sessions, see what you think of each of you individual efforts."

As soon as those words left his mouth Kitty, Rogue and Kurt all collapsed to their knees, only Kurt on purpose as he began to kowtow smacking his head on the ground and genuflection. "Thank you oh vise master, thank you, thank you!"

Harry laughed along with the others, then kicked his head just a little bit to get him to stand up again. "Now, these little exercises are supposed to teach you how to work as a team, but you can learn to be a team in many other ways and one of them is just hanging out. So I prepared oodles of popcorn and drinks before coming down here, and I installed a little device onto the TV that will let you watch any movie you all decide you want to see. Go, have fun and hang out a bit and get to know one another outside of life and death situations, school work or even more dangerous things."

He waved his hand and the X-men all moved off except for Jean, "who asked can I get out of this? It's not like I don't see the point or don't want to hang out but I have a physics test on Monday and it's a hard one. Our teachers a bit of an anal retentive, if you don't score 80% or better, you fail."

Harry looked up at the ceiling and asked "What do you guys think?"

Storm's voice came back and quickly from a nearby grill. "That is true, she chose to take the hardest physics course the school offers, and that demand sounds very plausible given what I know of the teacher in question."

Harry nodded. "All right Red you can go, though I think Professor Xavier might have something he should say to you."

"Not at this time, Mr. Potter," Charles's voice replied, sounding quite a bit colder than normal. Harry simply smirked and walked away while Jean, wondering what the heck that was about, made her way up to her room.

* * *

"Your letting them off pretty easy aren't you Potter?" Logan greeted the younger man as he entered the control room. Ororo simply smiled which Harry responded to as he pulled up a chair. Both of the other adults tried to ignore the tension between Xavier and the wizard, but both were wondering what had caused it.

Harry scratched his chin, shrugging. "I pushed the kids as far as I could today, their powers take a lot of energy apparently, and only Evan really has enough endurance to keep using them for long periods of time. Using their powers as much as they do in these sessions wore them all out. Can you tell me more about Evan's powers by the way? Is there an upper limit to how much of that bone stuff he can pull out?"

Ororo answered him sitting down quietly and leaning back, smiling slightly as Harry's eyes followed the motion for a moment before he settled on her face. Harry never perved out on her but the little things he did to show he found her desirable were quite pleasant, even the outright flirting they did at times was fun, though they never flirted during their morning talks. Harry kept his distance then, which was rather sweet, since she knew he still sometimes had issues seeing her as nature intended, though not enough to make him or her uncomfortable. "We haven't seen an upper limit yet to my nephew's abilities in terms of the size of what he creates, though the amount of bones he can bring out at any time is directly proportional to the amount of calcium he takes in on a daily basis. Why?"

"Right now the kids have two long range specialists, Boy Scout and Red, two infiltrators, Kurt and Kitty, and two skirmishers whose skills are wildly different. Rogue is excellent against one enemy in close, but at range is a liability, same when facing large numbers of troops, she can take them out, but taking in that many memories knocks her out right? Evan though is excellent at taking on large numbers, but they really need a tank, someone who can center the battle, get in close and disrupt the enemy and match any strong man they have, Kurt mentioned something about a Blob? If he can make armor as well as offensive weapons then he could be that tank."

Ororo smiled. "He will like that idea quite a bit, Evan has complained about how he seems to be a little underpowered in comparison to Scott, and Kurt's power, despite the looks that come with his mutant gene are very useful." Evan only compared himself to the other boys, all of whom felt the girls were, well, a little weaker than them save for Rogue, who as Harry had pointed out was a bit of a one trick pony.

Harry eyes narrowed. "Yes…. Scott, can I ask why he was chosen as leader of this little troupe of yours?"

"Why are you asking Mr. Potter?" Charles looked at him, wondering where this was going to go.

Harry smirked a little, staring back at him. "I'm asking because he has none of what I would call the leadership variables. He's not very charismatic, doesn't listen well to the contributions of the others, is pretty self-centered, far too certain of himself, and isn't mentally flexible."

Before Charles could respond Logan asked curiously. "Then who'd you have as the team leader punk?"

"Kurt." Harry answered simply. "He learns fast, he's flexible, has a certain amount of charisma and listens to his teammates."

"Nonetheless Scott is the team leader. He takes the position seriously, he is the most powerful offensively, has had the most training and is the most knowledgeable about military matters." Charles said firmly, trying to end the discussion. Scott was indeed the only one of the teens who had stepped up into the leadership role, and he drove himself hard to fulfill it. More he didn't think any of the others were mentally mature enough to handle the responsibility.

His attempt to end the conversation didn't work. "Taking the position seriously is nice and all, but it doesn't make up for the other intangibles. Scott may think he's a natural leader, but he really isn't. A good leader takes the opinions of others into account before making plans. A leader, especially on the small scale we're talking about has to be flexible, and Scott isn't. Worse, he plays favorites. They lost the first sessions as badly as they did because he shut down, ignoring the enemies around them and the welfare of the rest of his teammates when Red went down. Don't get me wrong, Red's an integral part of the group, her telekinetic powers are incredible both in strength and ability, but they stil had a chance to win both the first and second matches when she went down."

"Those things can be taught," Charles said, again firmly, trying to head off the argument. "Besides none of the others have stepped up and tried to assume a leadership role have they?"

Harry looked over at Logan and Ororo and both of them shook their heads. Harry frowned. "Well I suppose there's nothing we can do about it now, but I would recommend trying out the others on a rotating basis. Still at this point it's really not all that important as long as they have Ororo or Logan around to make the decisions in real life situations." Honestly the one he felt had the most leadership potential was Red, none of the others had her poise or control and she was becoming more and more flexible as she continued to learn. But he could tell Charles was more leery about whatever the entity inside her was than he wanted to let on, which was why he mentioned Kurt, who he also felt could be a leader someday. More the bald one's support of Scott meant this was a losing battle anyway. _ Maybe it's because Scott's the one that has been drinking his cool aid the longest. _Harry thought grimly. _Then again from what I've seen so far in terms of flexibility and listening to others he and Scott are pretty much the same. _

"True, now, what else do you want to have them work on?"

Harry shook off his misgivings for now, wanting to remain professional despite his disagreement with Xavier. "Rogue and Kitty both need to learn some weapon work to augment their powers, and Kurt could do with some more hitting power. One trick ponies do not last long, trust me. I knew plenty of wizards that were great magic users, but take away their wands and they were helpless. It's a pity you don't have a good engineer here to make them some stuff. Still I can see what I can come up with. More I want to look at ways to give those spandex uniforms of yours some more protection. Why on earth do you have them wearing spandex anyway?"

Charles and the others looked at one another than shrugged. "It just seems appropriate," Charles answered, a little lamely he had to admit "Spandex just seems to be what heroes wear, that's all."

"Hmm. Well anyway I think Logan should take over their training again, build up their endurance and hand to hand skills, that'll give me more time to work on those things, as well as my other projects. Evan can do some things about getting better at using his power, but I don't think I can help him there, after all we still don't even know what my mutant power is. I'll give the Boy Scout some reading and things to research and get more acquainted with small unit tactics. Run him through some sessions like this every night and only let him move on when he can keep all of his team alive and achieve the objective. Your choice on the objective and the enemy units, and I'll lead the opposition as often as I can, and with that ladies, gentlemen, I'm off." Harry stood up, bowed grandly to Ororo then nodded cordially to Logan before shooting a look at Charles out of the corner of his eyes as he walked out of the control room. "Remember Charles, three weeks." Charles stiffened, but Harry was already gone. He frowned a little but waved off the questioning glances of the other two and wheeled himself out of the room.

* * *

Alone in his room Harry frowned as he worked on his laptop, thinking. _Charles' dream is great, and he doesn't seem as controlling or as willing to sacrifice other people as Dumb-as-door, but he is still keeping secrets when there is no need to. I think Jean would be able to handle it easily, and his insistence on keeping Scott as the leader… that doesn't seem right to me. More if he's willing to keep a secret like that from the person who is housing this strange entity what else is he hiding? Yes, it's past time to see what I can do to become independent as possible. _First he tried to find videos or pictures of places in various American cities where Logan had mentioned he could go and sell his gold galleons and other things without any questions asked and certainly none answered if authorities came calling. After a while he was unsurprised to look up and see Hedwig watching him from the bedpost. "You always seem to know when I need you don't you girl?" He said raising a hand for her to alight upon. "I'm going to need to ask you to go to each of these places okay?"

The owl's head twirled in place, then she ruffled her feathers with her beak. "Preck, Preck preeck."

He smiled a little. "Three pieces of bacon per city."

The owl replied, "Preck," then moved her head up and down firmly.

"Five pieces is highway robbery Hedwig!" he exclaimed, stroking her plumage softly. "And what in the world do you want one of those for? I don't think it would have any effect, its meant for a different species you know."

The owls reply this time took longer and involved a bit more body language and in the end Harry was forced to concede to a least a few of her points. "Well that is true I don't exactly pay for the groceries around here. Fine five pieces it is for each city, but in terms of bait, you'll have to wait until we're done." Hedwig closed her eyes for a moment ruminating then nodded firmly, accepting the deal. "Deal then. You know the drill, go to all of them in turn find places where I can teleport to without anyone seeing me. But only go to three each night, I don't want you to tire yourself out. Hedwig nodded complacently and then within a second she was gone.

Next Harry cast a sensor spell that flashed out from his present position to find anyone that was interested in him or his present domicile. He found one soon enough, in a house well away from the mansion. He didn't think anyone from there could see anything but he wanted to make certain later. _Hmm, a intent based ward that confounds those looking at the house with ill intent, or too much interest? Hmm, well that will be simpler than trying to sneak up on whoever is out there. _He swiftly put together a few rune stones to mark down the area that this new ward would cover then pulled on his invisibility cloak. It was a little warmer than usual for some reason, but he ignored that, and walked out of the mansion and around the property. Each time he put down a ward he touched it with his wand, anchoring the ward to himself for now. Another ward was a mild protective ward, this one was purely against those with ill intent, who would suddenly be either confounded or turned aside if their will was not strong enough to push further.

The rest of the night, Harry stayed up working on his various projects. For the first time since he had escaped the Negative Zone he allowed his magic to sustain him rather than sleep and it answered his call with ease. It was worth it, as by the end of the night he had made designs for weapons for Rogue and Kurt, and even a small ranged weapon for Kitty. Kitty would have wristbands, something that was on her body and therefore could be phased out with her and didn't add much to her overall weight, that was able to shoot darts filled with paralyzing agents. Rogue got the same thing, while Kurt got a small needle that could be attached to his finger filled with a paralytic or anything else. It would take him a while to actually create them, but none of the parts he would need were anything that would cause concern if Charles bought them.

He also finished designing the runic array for Storm's emotional shield from the weather pattern around her. Or at least the hoped so, it would take her actually trying it out to see what would happen to actually see what it would do. At the moment he wasn't certain just yet, more he would need to figure out a way to power it, much like and kind or runic array that Kitty wanted to use. If it did though he would start work on something similar for Rogue, though that would be much harder.

Looking up he saw the sunlight streaming into his room and he got up and made his way over to Storms arboretum for their daily time together. There wasn't anything sexual or overtly romantic about it, despite Storm going around in her birthday suit. Storm hadn't grown up with any kind of nudity taboos, so rather than being naked, she was simply undressed. It was all a state of mind, and Harry, despite not being nearly at home nudity as she was had grown accustomed to it. More the slightly flirtatious nature of some of their conversations often times took more of his attention than the view itself. He also felt as if Storm was getting as much out of this as he was, being around someone she could relax with completely, letting her hair down and her shields as well because he understood some of her mental scars and had the same one himself.

Harry found her already awake and moving around, her body as usual uncovered, but Harry took merely a second to glance at her appreciatively then shook it off as he removed his own clothing save for his boxers. He murmured a greeting to her as he prepared some morning tea for the two of them to share while she went around watering her plants however she finished much more quickly than normal, and came over to sit and look at Harry in question. "What?" he asked, looking up at her.

Storm shook her head, smiling a little. "You may think you're good at hiding things from the people around you Harry, but you're really not. Not someone who knows you anyway and I am happy to count myself among that number." Harry blushed a little at that but smiled back, amused and amazed that this woman had grown to know him so well in so short a time, though the opposite was also true. "So what is the cause of this argument you are having with Charles that has you so concerned?"

Harry scratched his chin for a moment and shook his head regretfully. "It's really not my story to tell. Suffice to say that he's keeping secrets, when he really doesn't have any reason to do so. The reasons against still keeping it just did not sit well with me, and I well know the consequences of what he did to put it as vaguely as possible, and I think he doesn't. More, I'm not exactly satisfied with his approval of Scott's leadership."

Storm sighed a little. "I think you are being over hard on the young man, while I do not think that he is doing himself any favors by mooning over Jean, it is obvious why her deaths in those sessions caused him to overreact. More he has time to learn and get over it. I think because the 'school' you learned in was so harsh you don't realize that you don't have to be so harsh on them.

Harry leaned back thoughtfully and nodded, conceding the point. "I suppose I do, it's just I want them to be prepared for anything, you know, I've been looking online at the news, anti-mutant sentiment is on the rise and mutants themselves are appearing more and more often. Other nations seem to be dealing with it in their own way, but America is being its usual slow arse schizophrenic self and it will become more and more dangerous for both them and their enemies." Not that other countries were dealing with it very well yet, but the wait and see attitude in most of them was a far cry from having no official line just yet like in America, which seemed to be waiting for public sentiment to form a consensus then jump ahead of said whatever that choice was. Charles seemed to think that the main threats would come from other mutants, Harry knew it would come from both other mutants like a grown-up version of this brotherhood and the public at large.

Storm reached forward taking one of his hands and squeezing. "I realize that, and I cannot express how thankful I am that you are willing to help them learn. You can reach these kids far better and more easily then Logan or I could. Logan can help train their bodies but not their minds, and I myself, well i think they all see me as some kind of stuffy tutor, helpful in battle but not someone they need to listen to out of class."

"I think you're selling yourself short Ororo." Harry replied gently tracing her hand with a finger, causing her to shiver a little. "I think once we figure out how to disconnect your emotions from the local weather patterns, you'll see that you'll have a much easier time of relating to them. I think they could all do with a big sister in their lives, but Logan, yeah you're right. He's too gruff and too old to be anything but an authority figure to them, whereas I can be both."

"Regardless," Ororo said, squeezing his hand again, thankful the shiver his touch on her hand had no other visible effects, "I think that in many ways you can step back a little. You've come up with a good exercise regimen for them, let them go forward and learn at their own paces from now on."

Harry sighed again and nodded. The crisis wasn't just around the corner after all, though he could see it coming. Storm went on, "And while I do not know what you speak of I do know that Charles does tend to keep secrets. He even knew Mystique from before, and knows where she is hiding now, but refuses to do anything about it. I agree with some of his reasons for that, but I did not agree with his reasons for keeping it a secret at the time."

Harry frowned suddenly. "He knows where the leader of the opposition is, and isn't doing anything about it?"

Ororo wiggled one of her hands indicating yes and no. "She's not really opposition per-se her beliefs are opposite our own, but it's not as if she is some kind of violent maniac intent on killing everyone who disagrees with her. More the brotherhood is just like our own students for the most part. They are simply kids with bad backgrounds and sometimes even broken families, who see their powers as the ticket to a better life. We can't really fault them for thinking like that, only stop them when they cross the line and actually start attacking civilians."

Harry frowned a little but nodded. There had been a few young, junior corpse munchers that had been able to turn away. Not many, but some. There were just some lines that couldn't be crossed without truly changing the person doing the crossing. Draco had crossed a line, and had enjoyed doing it, but Theodore Nott had seen the line coming and ran away rather than try to cross it, He still believed in pureblood supremacy, but he wasn't a killer. Millicent Bulstrode had turned away from it too, forsaking both her parents for pretty much the same reason and a few others in other houses, both older and younger had done the same or planned to if it came to that before the war ended so abruptly. "So you're saying that these kids are just troubled teens at this point? That's all right for now, but sooner or later troubled teens become troubled men, and eventually they do cross a line. I'm just concerned that I don't really know how Charles will react or how he wants the kids to react when that time comes. I've seen too many fools who believe that sacrificing the innocence to redeem the evil makes sense." _Dumbledore and his entire order of the fried crow came rather forcibly to mind._

The Nubian goddess squeezed his hand again saying nothing, as in a way she agreed with Harry. The dream Charles had of the future was grand, and she agreed with it just as strongly as he did else she would not be here, but Ororo had grown up on the streets of one of the toughest, nastiest cities in the world, and then reached her teenage years teenage years on the Serengeti plains, where life was always chancy and often brutal. She well knew that there was a time for talking a time for forgiveness and a time for killing.

She womanfully made an attempt to change the subject and the two of them talked about his project to help her, as well as the project he would soon begin to help Rogue. The problem with Rogue was he could already figure out a way of cutting off her powers, after all they were based on touch which was much easier than an emotional connection you wanted to cut off at will. The problem was that any easy solution he could create right away would effectively cut her off further then she was already. So he needed to think of a way to cancel out her powers, but not make it permanent or something that couldn't be easily reversible. That would take quite a lot of time and trial and error. He hoped to be finished within three weeks however, that way he could leave if Charles ordered him out after Harry went through with his ultimatum to speak to Jean if Charles didn't about the entity in her head before that.

After that, the two of them left to get dressed and go down to prepare breakfast, meeting up again before going downstairs. It was only as the kids came down, groaning in the knowledge that Logan would be training them most of the day, that both of them realized they were holding hands again and let go reluctantly before anyone could see them.

* * *

Sunday was filled with exercise and language lessons interspersed with one on one meeting with Harry about their AAR reports and how they did in the team exercises the day before.

Most of these were easy. Kurt, Evan, Rogue and Jean all knew what they did wrong, accurately pointed out how they had gotten better and where they could still improve. In Kurt's it was endurance and speed, never staying in one place for long and getting stronger so he would be able to perform more teleports before becoming tired. He talked to Evan about new uses of his powers as well as being less arrogant, something Evan was already correcting and Ororo's nephew was ecstatic to find out he might become the teams tank with some effort and imagination (well after he got over the irritated feeling of talking to the man who even he was beginning to see as his aunties boyfriend. That was just wrong on many levels) and a bit more effort. Jean too felt power and application was the answer and wanted to continue the one-on-one sessions with Harry to learn new and more interesting ways to use her powers rather than the brute force applications. That she was able to recreate some of his spells gave her hope for more, and he agreed to it.

Rogue was a little tougher because she was a more prickly personality, who didn't like to be seen as weak. But she knew how vulnerable she was at range and was willing to do anything she could to counteract that weakness. She willingly agreed to be trained with a rifle for now, providing long range support until she could get close.

Scott was even tougher. He was a prickly personality, and he didn't want to admit he was wrong at all on a personal level. He kept on trying to bring up what the team did wrong rather than admit he went to pieces when Jean went down, only what the team as a whole did wrong, never himself. His AAR was well written and thoughtful on a team level but it was useless as a personal review. Harry rather grimly brought him to task on that and his numerous personal mistakes, and pointed out his biggest weakness, well biggest physical weakness anyway, that he was next to useless without his goggles/glasses, something any reasonably competent enemy could take advantage of. When Harry brought this up Scott's resultant 'pity me' party disgusted him so much he backed off.

Kitty was last, and met with Harry after dinner. She was already yawning, exhausted from Logan's all day lessons and Harry smirked a little at her as she joined him in the back yard. Kitty glared at him but the glare flowed off him like water. "Like, I already know that I've got to work on my endurance, and learn a distance weapon so I'm useful at range, got anything else to tell me teach?"

Harry nodded. "Two ideas actually. Have you ever tried to phase someone into a solid object and leave them there? And have you done the same for objects into other objects?"

Kitty grimaced. "Yeah, I have done the first. They're stuck like that until I let them go, but it like, looks so gross, and takes a lot out of me for some reason. But not for objects."

Harry nodded and picked up a few pebbles and handed them to her. "Let's find out then." It turned out that if she just left something in something else, they interpolated somehow without any damage done. Yet if she put even a bit of impetus into the object left behind well… The two of them stared at the tree that just exploded. Kitty's eyes were still wide while Harry had a large grin on his face and a second after the tree settled he began to laugh. "Ha,haha,ahahahahah, mwhahahahahhaha!"

Kitty looked at him askance as he laughed diabolically and then reached over slapping him on the back, snapping him out of it. "Bad teacher, no maniacal laughter for you."

Harry shook his odd mood off and smirked at her, noticing how tired she was. It looked as if trying to impart that bit of momentum to her rock while her hand was in the tree had taken a bit out of her, adding to her already pretty exhausted state. "Alright kid, that was all, I thought you showed the most improvement in your team exercises yesterday. Keep it up. And if you want to help me with a little project get up early tomorrow and we'll see if we can get a certain runic array to work okay?" Kitty nodded, too tired to get his hint, and went off to be immediately thereafter.

* * *

After a Sunday filled with Logan running them into the ground and interspersed with Ororo's language lesson as well as Harry's more cerebral discussions (for some for others as mentioned it was more of a dressing down) most of the kids were actually looking forward to school. Jean however was not. She was slowly going insane with worry over her physics test she was taking later today. Thankfully she had taken some of Mr. Potter's advice and changed her mental defenses around a little. Rather than being, well unimaginative about things she had decided to be a little more proactive. While she had stuck to the idea of a circular defense, that was where the ended. No, her defenses, well they were built to keep things both in and out, and had the tools to do so.

Despite her confidence in her new mental defenses to keep out errant thoughts she was still freaking out a little, so she was rereading her physics notes as she walked down the stairs. Her studying was interrupted however by laughter and woops from in front of her in the main hall. She looked up and gaped at what she saw.

Harry and Kitty, who had indeed woken up early and joined Harry (who had bowed out early from his time with Ororo that morning) to study runes, were sitting on a carpet. It was one of those that all their rooms had come with, some kind of bulk bought ugly thing with 70's era colors that she had replaced as soon as she could, and she knew all the others did as well. The odd thing about it was of course, that it was floating in the air in the middle of the hall.

Kitty grinned and waved as Rogue and Jean came down the steps. "Heh, we got the flying runes to work! Like this is so amazing, I bet we could put them on our uniforms soon!"

Harry wagged his hand in the air noncommittally. "Remember, a runic array works along the same principle as a ward, they both need to have a power source. I need to figure out a way for the power source to be something that won't run out of juice after one use once it's a certain distance away from me. Also," he pushed her lightly, making her giggle a little, "what's this we thing, Curly-cat?"

Jean scowled a little as the others all chattered gleefully about the idea. Scott in particular was taken by the idea of them having that much mobility. Flying like that would take Fred's and Lance's powers both out of the equation for starters.

Ever since Jean had learned about her telekinetic powers she had hoped to fly. But so far she just couldn't sustain it. She could slow a fall or boost a jump a bit, but actual real and useful flight eluded her. _Hopefully the ongoing lessons with Harry will get my strength and control up enough to do it._

Her thoughts were interrupted as Harry dropped down in front of her, his place immediately taken by Evan. "Are you alright? I know you said you had a major test today, and that you were having problems with keeping peoples thoughts and emotions out in stressful situations."

Jean shrugged. "I revamped my defenses like you suggested, so hopefully I won't be hearing anyone else's thoughts today, we'll see."

"Would you like me to check on them Jean?" The professor asked, wheeling up after smiling indulgently at the flying carpet duo. Harry stiffened a little and moved away slightly to keep Charles in his sight, but didn't say anything, hoping that this was a segue to Charles telling Jean about the foreign entity in her head.

Jean noticed the tension between the two men, but didn't make the connection that it had anything to do with her. "Yes please professor, I really don't want to be distracted when I'm taking my test today."

Charles nodded agreeably and sent out a feeler toward her mind. He also hoped to see evidence that would prove his sealing away the alien mind inside Jean had not had any effect on her. Yet after a second he recoiled in shock. "What in the world was that!?"

"How do you like my new mental defenses professor?" The redhead smirked a bit. If her little pets could keep a real telepath out when he was trying to get in then they would certainly block out stray thoughts.

I, I, yes Jean, they, they're very nice, now if you'll excuse me?" Charles wheeled himself off, looking quite disturbed about something.

Harry watched him go and then turned back to the younger girl, a small smirk on his face. "You used one of the examples I told you about that came from Luna didn't you?"

Jean giggled a little, her normal anxiety gone at the professor's reaction. "Yep, but I added some of my own tweaks. I think my little Belsham-trees will do nicely to keep my powers to myself, and anyone else thoughts out of my head." Harry grinned getting the reference and easily able to picture what she was talking about in his head. He clapped her on the back lightly, laughing with her before going in to bring out breakfast.

Ororo came down at this point with Logan, smiling happily at seeing the carpet flying, images of going out on flights with Harry rather than Hedwig (something the two of them had done on and off of at night which they both enjoyed, well, if she was interrupting Hedwig's, precks correctly anyway) which she thought would be an extremely romantic thing to do. Logan merely looked and shook his head, while everyone but Jean stay out to take their turns flying on the carpet before breakfast until it ran out of power a few minutes after Harry left.

Jean had a few minutes to look down at her notes before her plate arrived in front of her and she looked up, her frown of concentration disappearing into surprise. Harry always served a fruit cup along with whatever else he was making for breakfast, but this time rather than a random mix her bowl was filled with cherries, blueberries and passionfruit, not a single strawberry, pineapple or cantaloupe in sight. _How on earth does he know that these are my favorite fruits, or that I don't like the others?_ In point of fact she hated strawberries or raspberries, they simply were tasteless to her. She looked at the main serving plates and her eyes widened a little further as her mouth began to salivate, seeing that the one in front of her, Rouge and Evan, who was sitting across from them with Logan, had pancakes rather than the waffles on the other two servers she could see on the table. _Or that blueberry pancakes are my absolute favorite? _

She looked around and saw that Storm and Kitty both had their own specially prepared fruit bowls as well, and Kitty even had chocolate chip waffles in front of her, something that made her and Kurt, who was sitting across from her very happy indeed. _This must be to reward her for learning something about runes, and well why he did it for Ms. Munroe need not be said, and for me I guess to cheer me up before my test. _She took a bite from her fruit bowl and nearly moaned aloud at the taste. _It worked too, for knowing me for only a few weeks that man knows my tastes entirely too well. _

The food was so good Jean almost completely forgot her desire to diet until she was about to start the second pancake she had put on her plate. When she did she firmly put her fork down and tried to get up, only to find herself once more stuck to her chair. She frowned, searching her place for the telltale rune that was holding her here. Harry hadn't yet used an active spell, and she thought he wouldn't in their little breakfast battle. He would consider it unsporting, not giving her a chance to get away.

She frowned a little as she didn't find one, then felt underneath her seat and underneath her place at table. Nothing there. She then felt the back of her chair and didn't feel anything there. She frowned a little then sighed as the smell of the pancake on her plate hit her. She sighed again and picked up her fork again. After eating the last bite she looked over at Harry, a frown on her face. "Alright I give, how did you do it this time Potter?"

Harry smirked a little, remembering times in his home dimension when that exact phrase had been used by irate students in his fifth year after he had taken up pranking to relieve his tension. "You checked everywhere but your own back, surprising really, I would have thought it would be one of the first places you would look."

Jean grimaced then reached behind her and felt around. After a series of comical contortions she was at last able to the center of her back. Her hand came back holding a sticky note on her back. The rune shown wasn't one of his normal Egyptian or Norse runes, it was Japanese, and one of the few of that alphabet he was happy with using, but that was the only language that could be used on paper. The others were a little too powerful to be contained on something so flimsy. Japanese didn't have the power, but could achieve a few more effects (exorcism was just one of them, but the variety made him glad he had brought along a few books to study when he could) and their power lasted for quite a bit longer. "Huh, you slapped this on my back when we were laughing together before breakfast?" Harry nodded and Jean shook her head, a small smile on his face. "Well played Potter, yet you may have won this round, but I will win the war."

The others all laughed, even Scott, and Ororo smiled. "But you're not so nervous about your test are you?"

Jean blinked, realizing this was true and went outside to meet her boyfriend with a much lighter heart.

* * *

That night, after spending most of his day on his various projects, and building his knowledge of the technology in this new world, Hedwig returned with the first five of their target teleportation points around the US. The two stared into one another's eyes as Hedwig imprinted the location into Harry's mind. This was something they had done a few times back in their home dimension. Hedwig would scout out an area around their target, then imprint a place on Harry's mind, and he would apparate to that location, often taking other people with him. Most of the time the image had been of a clearing in some woods somewhere, but this time it was of a flat rooftop in a city down in Texas, at least that was what he thought. It really didn't matter, as Hedwig would be the one guiding him to each successive stop. After about ten minutes he was able to picture the rooftop well enough and he nodded, breaking their connection. Harry picked up a large sack carrying galleons and several gold bracelets and things made from melting galleons down, gathered his magic around him, and a moment later was somewhere else.

The sun was still high in the sky here, and Harry found himself on top of roof, maybe five stories in the air, with a few shorter building around him and a few taller but none with windows facing him. Hedwig appeared in the air a moment later and Harry walked over to the edge of the building and walked down the exterior fire escape, a notice me not spell already in place on both of them. As soon as he touched down on the street however he cancelled them. Harry didn't have anything he particularly wanted to hide, and anyway Hedwig would probably garner much more attention than he would be.

About five minutes later he walked into a pawn shop that specialized in buying gold things for cash, a small smile on his face. He moved swiftly up to the register at the back of the store and greeted the worker, large heavily muscled man with numerous visible tattoos. "Hello, I have some gold coins and other heirlooms that I would like to sell." Later he walked out with 110,000 in cash. It wasn't quite as much as he would have gotten if he had sold it to a more reputable place, but this store was not part of a chain and was locally owned, so wasn't connected to any other store elsewhere. The owner might be, but probably not, pawn shops tended to be a little shady, and this one had been recommended for just that fact by Logan in any case.

Harry hit up two other places that night with similar results, ending the night with a little under 400,000 dollars U.S. _Two more nights of this and a few gold bars and that should be enough to get started with a bank account, hopefully in Switzerland. Or elsewhere where they don't allow foreign interference. _

* * *

The following few days fell into a new pattern for everyone at the institute. The kids were working almost exclusively with Logan again on physical exercises, but Harry had also assigned Scott and the rest some research to do on small unit tactics and strategies. He was hoping that one of the others would step up and challenge Scott for his leadership position, but that wasn't happening just yet. Evan was willing to challenge him physically, but it became apparent he wasn't willing to do the mental work needed to really become the leader of the group. Say what you would about Scott, he was a hard worker and he ate up the work.

Harry interspersed working on his various projects with playing pranks on all and sundry and getting to know the kids. Jean (or Red as Harry continued to call her), buoyed by the fact her new defenses had finally blocked out other peoples thoughts from her mind, actually began to prank back, using her powers to shift items in the kitchen a little when Harry reached for them or tripping Harry and planting paint balls in places then exploding them as he neared. He hadn't yet gotten her in turn badly yet, but it was an amusing escalation of their breakfast wars, and she enjoyed a day of being a blond once. Kurt joined in enthusiastically, and he and Harry eventually forced Charles to ask them to tone it down.

Harry learned that Jean, while having normal middle class parents, had been more than happy to leave them behind, not just because of her powers but because they were not exactly the most loving parents. They were kind and nice, but were also aloof, demanding and unprepared to deal with their daughter's mutant status. They had known Xavier for a while before her powers awakened, and it had been an easy choice for them to let her go to the institute. Kurt on the other hand was an orphan, and had been taken in by a band of gypsies. They had been his family until Charles had found him and brought him to the institute.

Kitty came from a well to do family, and she regularly wrote to her family, preferring to do that rather than phone, as it let her tell them more than she would otherwise without worrying about fees. They were proud of her, both for her grades in school and choosing to learn how to control her powers, and they were all very close. Evan's parents were regular humans too, and his mother was Ororo's older sister, who had been left behind to finish her school year when her family moved to Dubai. He was close with them, but they had been ill-prepared to handle his powers, and trusted Ororo implicitly to watch out for him, so had let him go to the institute far more easily than Kitty's who had put up a fight before letting her go. Evan had a bit of a problem with authority, but was a good kid nonetheless, and as Harry supposed the most physically fit of the X-men thanks to being a basketball player and skater.

Harry got to know Rogue by asking her about music, something she was the acknowledged master of in the household. Harry didn't really care for music one way or another before this, but he found he liked some of the hard rock of America and of course the U.K. More he had gotten to know Rogue a little more, finding out how much of a problem her powers were for her. She couldn't even brush against someone else in the hall, lest she drain them of their vitality and memories. It made her aloof, standoffish in most social situations, and wary of letting anyone get close physically or emotionally.

Her family too was a sore subject. She had been raised by Mystique ever since she was a toddler and didn't know who her real parents were, only that she had been left at an orphanage before Mystique found her. Other than that she but refused to talk about those years, and Mystique by herself was a sore subject. Harry hadn't yet figured out a way to cancel out her powers and still let her have the feeling of touching someone, but he vowed to make it a priority moving forward.

Scott too was an orphan though he remembered his family, mother father and a younger brother named Alex. They had been flying in a private plane, apparently the father was a pilot, and they had been struck by lightning or something and had crashed. Scott was apparently the only one to walk away, and when he did his mutant powers had manifested due to the extreme duress he had been put under. That could have been the reason he was such a, well an emo really, yet it did not really excuse him having as little empathy as he did. After all he wasn't the only orphan in the group. Yet Scott seemed to think that because his eyes were deadly weapons without his glasses it should let him get away with his pity party. It almost reminded Harry of Remus Lupin and how he acted. Rather than trying to overcome his disability or turn it to his advantage Scott allowed it to dominate his life, much like the werewolf had.

Of course all the kids had noticed the tension between Xavier and Harry which seemed to build as the days went on. Most of them had decided they didn't want to know what was causing it, which was rather prudent of them, a path of wisdom that Ororo and Logan also followed. Scott however had very obviously taken Xavier's side, and was frosty and unfriendly to Harry, even when Harry was instructing him in small unit tactics. Kurt took Harry's side however and had begun to target Scott even more than usual with his pranks.

The routine of the day had no impact on Harry's nighttime activities however. Every night he went out to a few different cities, unloading galleons (which looked almost exactly like Spanish doubloons so did not cause much comment) and the jewelry he made form melting some of his coins down. Harry figured that if he kept this up for two or three months he might make a dent in his available gold, but not before then.

* * *

It was Friday and Harry was hitting up the last city he wanted to sell his gold in before he deemed he had enough to head to Switzerland (and wouldn't an apparition that far be interesting…), around 3 million dollars U.S. The city this time was New York, and for the first two stops the trip went as the others had. Only the story ever changed when he went into these pawn shops. He was either a collector who had decided to start a family and needed the cash now or he had found them in his grandparents old attic when he cleaned out their house, etc, etc… This time however he stopped halfway to his last target, his magical senses tingling. He looked around, then turned and began to walk in the direction he had felt magic come from.

The feeling he felt was as if he had hit a very low powered warning ward set throughout an area to detect other magic users. Yet as he moved to the center of the area covered he found a normal looking house. Well it was normal to his regular eyes. To his magical senses this place was singing with protective wards and enchantments. _Definitely not a place I would want to try to break into. _ Despite the fact most of the wards looked relatively low key and forgiving there were so many of them and some were so powerful it reminded him a little of Potterstead. You know, without the instant death dealing wards or any of the more dangerous traps. Still what was there was dangerous enough and Harry could tell there were more hidden underneath them. Harry resolved to be very friendly to whoever lived here.

He walked up to the door and knocked twice firmly. After a scant minute someone answered the door. The man who looked out at Harry was short but extremely fit, bald and Asian, wearing some kind of Asian monk outfit that Harry had never seen before. "Yes, may I help you young one?"

Harry's eyebrows quirked at the 'young one' bit, but he smirked too, knowing that the man was probably even older than he looked by a wide margin if he was magical. "I hope so, are you the owner of this house?"

"I am not, I am afraid that the owner, Dr. Steven Strange, is out at present. I am his manservant, Wong. May I be of assistance?" Actually Dr. Strange was completely out of the dimension, dealing with a magical threat originating from another one. He had been gone for several days, and Wong was beginning to get worried about him. Still that was not something he was going to share with this young stranger with his strange glittering emerald eyes and confident air belying his age.

Harry frowned a little then shrugged, leaning in so that even if someone was nearby they wouldn't be able to hear his words. "Well, tell him that another magical user came by and wanted to talk shop. My names Harry Potter, and I'm a new bloke on the block so to speak." He flicked his fingers and small bits of light glittered off his fingers. "I'm at the Xavier School for the Gifted upstate if he wants to meet me. Complement him on your ward scheme for me will you?"

Wong blinked a little, unused to seeing someone steeped in the secrets of magic be so open with his gifts. "I will tell him you stopped by Mr. Potter. Have a nice day." Harry nodded and left, finished up his errand, and left New York without further incident.

* * *

The next day was Saturday, the first day of summer vacation and the kids were heading out to some kind of endurance campout of some kind. The choice had been between a week at this campout supposedly to build teamwork, toughness and to get them in touch with nature, or going on a backpacking trip with Logan. Harry was amused by how quickly the kids had chosen to go to the camp, and also how training with him for that amount of time hadn't been discussed. He wasn't that much of a hard ass was he? He waved the kids onto their bus and turned back, looking forward to spending some time studying his runic arrays and hanging out with Ororo. Ororo too was looking forward to having a day to herself and Logan had already called the TV, wanting to curl up and watch some kind of spy movie marathon. Charles too was looking forward to a week of peace and quiet. Little did any of the adults suspect that their peaceful day would soon be interrupted.

* * *

Mystique had been slowly becoming more and more concerned by the changes she had been seeing in Xavier's charges. Not only were they becoming more individually dangerous, they seemed to be bonding as a team more. Evan had clashed with Pietro earlier in the week (something about Evan claiming he was the better athlete or some such nonsense), and rather than being evenly matched or simply unable to actually engage one another Evan had been very sneaky and taken Quicksilver's feet out from under him with a single well placed spike of bone. Pietro's own momentum had slammed him head first into the lockers along one of the walls, knocking him out. Pietro simply thought 'the punk got lucky' and Mystique would have too if she hadn't heard Evan mutter something about targeting weaknesses, something that showed he was thinking about how to fight, not just getting in and mixing it up.

Fred Dukes had also had a run in with Rogue and Kurt when the huge teen tried to punch a soda machine to raid the soda inside and the other two had stopped him, an incident she had seen from her office on the third floor. The two X-men had worked together almost seamlessly to confuse, disorient and then take out the massive Blob, a teamwork that would have been unthinkable a few weeks ago. Mystique knew it had to be something to do with the new tenant at the institute, yet she hadn't been able to find anything out about him. For some reason every time she tried to spy on the institute she didn't see anything out of the ordinary, or she suddenly had to leave. Nor had she figured out a way to get in and steal Cerebro, which was still one of her ongoing objectives.

So she had decided to get some other help, both to get her the computer and to see what the emerald eyed young man's power was. So, while her charges were at the same camp as the X-men and hopefully keeping them busy, she had infiltrated the Vault, and now stood in front of her target. She stepped past the other guard, who she had knocked out with a chop to the neck, still wearing the body of the guard she had replaced to get in she pressed the button that would halt the flow of sedative into the water of the tank.

Within seconds the man, a monstrous giant almost as large as Fred but covered with muscle rather than fat, roused, his brown eyes snapping open to latch on Mystique in her morphed body. "What the hell are you playing at, a guard trying to have fun with the prisoner, wake him up then knock him out again when he thinks he can get free? Well fuck you!"

The man began to thrash in the water, but stilled as Mystique raised one hand to hover over the sedative button. "Now, now, not everything is as it appears. I want to make a deal Cain. I understand you have an issue with your brother Charles?" the man's eyes seemed to narrow and he stilled in his tank save for his hands, which were clenching and unclenching. "Well he has something I want. If you follow me I'll lead you straight to him, but after that I want you to give me an opening to get it okay?"

Cain nodded. "Lady if you know where my brother is, just tell me and I'll do the rest."

Mystique smiled and twitched her hand over to another button. The water emptied out of the tank. As soon as the water was drained a change occurred in the man in the tank, starting from a strange red jewel imbedded into his chest. Armor began to appear on him, red and covering his chest, legs and forming around his arms like bracers, culminating in a massive dome shaped helmet that was heavily bolted to the rest of his armor. "In that case make us a hole out of here, and I'll direct us from there, I've got a plane waiting that'll get us to our target that much faster." With that she changed shape into a crow and flew up to latch onto one massive shoulder. Cain grinned, turned and barely slowing down slammed into and through first one wall then another as alarms began to wail throughout the vault.

* * *

Harry was lounging around in the solarium with Ororo, both of them simply enjoying being around one another, with no real need to speak. Ororo was wrapped around a book written in Chinese, some kind of romance or other, and Harry was reading through a book on runic body inscriptions that Sirius had recommended to him when they were discussing Harry's crisis suit ideas. Between them was a plate of sandwiches and fruit that one or the other would reach for from time to time. Hedwig was also there, reading the second book in the Fellowship series. Harry wasn't certain but he felt she was developing a little too much interest in Gwaihir the Windlord, though what kind of interest it was he couldn't say.

Their peace was broken as alarms began to blare throughout the mansion at the same time that Harry grasped his head, wincing. "Buggering shite! That is painful! Something just shattered the wards around this place, something really powerful." _Maybe it was a bad idea to link the wards to me personally, but I didn't want to use one of my hearth stones, I've only got two of them after all. _ Ward stones were simply stones with wards on them, but to really create a warded dwelling they were only part of the equation, the other half was the hearth stone, usually a massive slab of specially prepared and spelled granite that contained the power portion of the runic array, as well as connecting to all the wards and weaving them all together. Harry hadn't wanted to waste one of his two slabs, and had only put down his initial two and a low powered intent ward that would warn him whenever anyone came near the property with violent intent rather than merely too much interest. Someone had just smashed through that ward like it wasn't even there and the backlash had hit Harry like a bludger to the face.

Ororo helped him to his feet as Charles' voice came on over the intercom. "Attention everyone we have a situation approaching, please come to the security room."

Harry and Ororo met up with Logan and the three of them went down to the security room. They found Charles there waiting for them, looking at a video from a camera installed in a rock near the far back of the property. On the screen there was a massive man in red armor thundering his way through the forest toward the mansion. Luckily he had started at the far back of the property, and had about ten acres to cross before he hit the mansion. Harry asked the question on all three of the younger adult's minds. "So who is tall armored and smash-happy?" The last word was added as the man ignored the trees in his ways, crashing through them without even noticing them.

Charles sighed. "That is my half-brother Cain Marko. He was once an explorer, a treasure hunter, more of a grave robber if I am honest, but he found some kind of ancient mystical device that somehow jumpstarted his mutant gene. He has hated me since we were children for, well, normal childish things really, and he used his powers for his own selfish ends before I incapacitated him with my telepathic powers. Since then he has been locked away in the maximum security prison the Vault. He must have escaped somehow and has come here seeking me, though how he knew where I lived is beyond me. He is nigh on unstoppable physically, and when he starts moving literally nothing can stop him."

On the screen the giant man had nearly cover five acres by now, moving in a simple straight line at amazing speeds for someone so huge. He stopped and turned when a blue skinned woman came out of the woods behind him. She was too far away for her words to be heard but Juggernaut's reply was. "Lady I ain't one of your brats, I do what I want to do, and no one gives me orders!" A fist the size of a ham flashed out and connected with a wet smack and the blue skinned woman flew away through the woods.

Harry's eyebrow rose. "And that would be this Mystique woman who is the leader of the brotherhood?" Logan frowned hoping the broad was alright. Despite their differences now they had often been on the same side after all.

"I'm afraid so. She must have thought Cain would help her achieve something, possibly steal Cerebro, but Cain is not a team player." Charles sighed.

Juggernaut saw the security camera in its tree as he turned and he looking into it, smirking evilly under his massive helmet. "Hah, I know you're watching Charles, get ready to meet your maker because I'm coming for you, and you know nothing stops the juggernaut! "

Harry pushed himself off the wall, one eyebrow raised in almost amused query, as if he didn't really understand the danger of the present situation, and was more intrigued than anything else. "Nothing huh? Well that sounds like an interesting experiment. You stay here nice and safe baldy, I'll go out and see what some magic can do to the big red wolf."

Ororo shook her head, looking at her friend worriedly. "I don't think that he meant it as a challenge."

"Doesn't matter how he meant it luv, just matters how I take it." And with that Harry walked out of the security room, fingers twitching in anticipation. It had been a while since he had gone all out, maybe this big red bloke could give him a bit of a challenge. He stopped for a moment, channeling his magic power into his crisis suit, which he routinely wore underneath regular clothing, a holdover from his days in the negative zone. "**Magia Erebea**," he whispered and his active magical power dipped a little as he shunted some of it to reinforce his body's durability and speed.

Behind him Charles ordered Ororo to take the quinjet and go pick up the X-men and bring them back to help, while Logan went to change before going out to assist Harry in holding off Cain.

Juggernaut had just reached the clear yard behind the mansion when Harry stepped out to bar his path. "Hey big guy, you said nothing stops you right? I want to be clear on this, you literally think you are unstoppable?"

Cain laughed low and deep, his chuckles echoing around to the snap of falling trees behind him. "Heeheheh, that's right punk, nothing can stop the Juggernaut, not you not my brother not anyone!"

Harry nodded eyes and hands beginning to crackle with magical power. "That's what I thought. Challenge accepted."

"Hah, make your move punk!" The Juggernaut charged forward, disdaining the mouthy little pipsqueak that had just challenged him. Harry stepped back, lashing out with first a** stupefy**, then a **reducto** and **bombarda** in quick succession, testing the waters so to speak. He wasn't surprised when stupefy did nothing but the **bombarda** not working at all despite actually exploding against its target did surprise him. "Huh." Harry said ducking and rolling away, before apparating behind Cain.

Another round of spells, this time less direct ones, like the **wingardium leviosa**, designed to incapacitate in some way were equally ignored, and harry had to teleport away again as Cain turned, trying to hammer him again, moving faster than Harry had initially thought. "Hah, I don't know what you're trying to do pipsqueak, but it ain't working! The shield of Cyttorak protects me from everything, I'm invulnerable!"

_Okay so he's immune to low level attack spells. Let's take it up a notch. _Now taking this far more seriously, Harry first cast at the ground, softening it directly below Cain's feet. As the man began to sink into the bog that had suddenly appeared below him Harry began to cast some of his more powerful spells. A **shatter shaker **shot out, but dissipated right before impacting Cain, and Harry's eyes narrowed. He worked his way up his repertoire, his family lightning spells, some other elemental attacks, and lashing out with a siege spell he had created along the same time as the shatter shaker, a penetrating spell called **Drill of Light** (Harry's naming sense was vile, he knew it, but during his travels in the negative Zone, there were no one else around to comment on them).

None of them, not even the **Drill of Light** worked, and Harry was barely able to duck in time to avoid a punch that would have ripped his head off as Cain leapt free from the bog Harry had created. He wasn't able to dodge the kick that came up off the ground into his stomach however and Harry woofed in agony as he was lifted and thrown back a hundred feet to crash into the rubble of the mansion.

"FFUUUCCCKKK!" Harry groaned in agony. If it wasn't for his crisis suit and his **Magia Erebea** reinforcing his body magically, that one shot alone would have finished him. _ God that bastard packs a wallop. That was like getting hit by one of Blastarr's blasts back in the Negative Zone! I really need to step up my own training I've gotten soft if he can tag me that easily._ By this time however his magic had already healed him enough to move and he got to his feet.

Wolverine had shown up at this point and was keeping Juggernaut busy, his speed and claws able to keep him in the fight but not really doing anything but irritating his adversary. Harry frowned sending some more spells downrange at Cain then took a moment to think. Most combat was based on learned or instinctive responses, but mage combat was different. A mage was most dangerous when he was able to stand back and think about his next move, his next spell, while his instincts kept his body alive around him. So Harry took a moment to analyze his earlier failures to do more than irritate the man in red armor. _Okay so that shield of his protects him from direct assault, as well as anything that is cast directly at him, but that spell shot at the ground below him worked. What about spells that's aren't direct effect but still attack him indirectly? Does that shield protect his senses? _

Harry began moving his hands in a complicated gesture, and suddenly dozens of red envelopes appeared all around him. This was a spell that Hermione and he had worked out during their second year, after watching the rather humiliating and incredibly bad idea of a howler in action. Honestly, what kind of parent thinks shouting second hand at someone in public does anything other than humiliate the victim? He had however seen how useful a spell like that could be, and Hermione had wanted something to do, bored out of her mind already by how slowly their courses were moving. Now Harry used it, magnified many times over.

A sudden thought occurred to him and he send a few more spells at Cain with his off hand as his right continued to work on creating the howler spells with his right. "Hey Logan!"

"What do ya want bub, can't ya see I'm busy?" The Canadian shouted back, ducking under another wild swing and trying to stab the arm before Cain could pull it back. Again his claws seemed to skitter off something unseen before they could touch skin and he cursed. Fighting Cain head on was a losing proposition, but with that helmet on his head he was immune to the mental attacks that could take him out.

"You said once that you had heightened senses right, sight, smell, hearing?"

"What of it!"

"Well, then you might want to cover your ears!" Logan jumped back and looked around at that, raising an eyebrow behind his mask as he saw something like thirty large red envelopes, seeming almost to be alive in some fashion, moving and trying to open as if something was inside. For some reason the sight filled him with dread, and Logan jumped back again as Cain tried to close the distance then brought his hands up to cover his ears.

It was well he did for as soon as the red envelopes were around the Juggernaut, who began to try and hit them ineffectually lashing out only for the letters to move aside, they all exploded. That was really the only word for it In Logan's opinion. They all went off like sound bombs, screeching and yowling at just the right decibel to produce the most pain in its victim. Cain screamed, feeling pain, real pain for the first time in a long while as his ears throbbed, then burst under the assault, his eardrums gone.

Logan howled in agony then a hasty mufilatio hit him, and the blessed silence engulfed his battered ear drums. Despite this, he had already fallen into his berserker rage, the sudden and surprising pain going straight through his hard earned control and awakening the beast inside. Harry gasped in surprise as his supposed ally turned and charged him, claws out and seeking his life.

"Logan, what the bloody fuck are you doing?!" Harry snapped, trying desperately to stay ahead of the weaving claws coming for him. _Christ he's fast, he obviously held back as much in our spars as I did_! Harry gasped in agony as Logan's adamantium claws slashed across his side, stopped only by the built in protective shielding of his crisis suit and even that began to fail.

He jumped back summoning a **lacero**, a fire whip into his hand and he whipped it forward, catching Logan in the chest and throwing him backward and he rolled on the ground howling like a wounded beast.

Harry turned and started to fire mid level spells at Juggernaut, trying to see if he could get through his armor. A overpowered** lacero **did nothing, and Harry stopped using element type spells, instead going back to using penetrating spells. The only one that even rocked Cain was one Harry called the railgun. It was basically the monster version of a **rifela**. It summoned up a small bullet of magic and sent it out via a bit of magically created electromagnets between two of his fingers. The thing hit like a freight train despite its size, but all it did was stagger the big red bastard. Despite his ears not having healed jhust yet Harry couldn't figure out a way to knock him down.

And a second later he didn't have any more time to think as Logan rushed toward him again howling. "Holy Hell, what the bloody fuck is wrong with you!"

* * *

"Ah can't believe ya'll wanted tah do this instead of try and hot rod the bus and get back tah civilization." Rouge muttered as they finally sat down on the top of a summit where the camp counselor, Sgt. Hawke had put a flag for them to get to. Well them and the brotherhood. _Why the hell had both our groups come to the same survival camp?_ After several different issues, trials and tribulations mostly caused by their ongoing rivalry and the Brotherhood just not having much teamwork or common sense they had all gotten to the summit.

Jean pushed her shirt clad shoulder playfully. 'I'll admit in retrospect it was probably the best idea. Certainly would have saved us a lot of trouble."

Rogue smirked at her and Lance and Toad of the brotherhood laughed a little at miss perfect student thinking breaking the law was a good idea. Scott however frowned. "While it would be easier, it would have broken the law and probably gotten us in trouble not only with the authorities but the professor and Logan as well."

Kurt shook his head. "We vere just joking mine fruend. Though I am missing Harry's cooking."

The Brotherhood all looked quizzical, but Evan rolled his eyes. "I hate to admit it but he does actually cook better than Auntie O."

Kitty reached into her backpack and pulled out a small lunchbox. When she opened it however she gasped and laughed. The others looked at her quizzically and then with shock as she reached into the small four inch box and her hand disappeared. After a moment she pulled it back out holding a huge turkey club. She set it down and kept bringing out more, different sandwiches and other lunch items, giggling all the while.

Jean frowned a little. "I see he has stepped up his anti-diet warfare. I must think of a way to respond to this."

Kurt laughed as he grabbed a beef sandwich and passed half of it to Fred, who looked as if he was going to start drooling any moment now. "Harry again jah? Taste this, see what we mean ya?"

Quicksilver shot over to look over into the small lunchbox and gaped at the space inside. "Wh-what kind of mutant power does this guy have anyway?"

Kitty grinned at him. "Now that is a secret! Heheheh!"

The others all sat down to eat for a bit, even Scott and Lance forgetting their rivalry for the moment to enjoy the nice view and the good food. Pietro continued to try and find out what powers the new guy had, but couldn't get a straight answer out of any of the X-men. As they were finishing their late lunch however the x-jet suddenly roared up with a Storm at the helm, dressed in her X-men suit, her face grim.

* * *

Harry had been holding off both Logan from killing him and Juggernaut for getting behind him, hammering him every time he got to his feet with another sound attack for over twenty minutes, but Logan had closed in again and was forcing him back. At this point the X-men arrived in the jet with the brotherhood, and were astonished to see the Juggernaut holding his head in agony while Wolverine and harry seemed to be fighting a few spaces away. Even as they watched though Juggernaut got to his feet yet again and rumbled toward the two combatants, slowly, weaving like drunkard, but still in motion.

Harry looked up at them and shouted. "Get this bloody idiot off me, I nearly had the big baddy down and he goes and attacks me! He hasn't stopped either, even though big and armored keeps on bloody getting back up!"

As Kurt teleported down and Jean lowered herself to the ground telekinetically, something she hadn't been able to do as little as a month ago, they all heard the professor's voice inside their head. _Mr. Potter tried some kind of sound based attack on Juggernaut, but Logan was caught in the backlash before Mr. Potter could protect him. The pain of the attack has thrown Logan into his berserk state, and unfortunately I can't get through his rage to calm him down. Immobilize him if you can. Juggernaut's only weakness is his lack of mental defense. If you all can somehow remove his helmet I can restrain him._

"Harry!" Kitty yelled, already jumping out of the jet, phasing out to touch down lightly. "Mr. Logan's in a berserk state, use a spell to knock him out of it somehow!" Behind her the Brotherhood members all looked at one another, mouthing 'spell?' in wonder. They had come along when Storm informed them that Juggernaut had knocked out Mystique. None of them really liked her all that much, but she did pay the bills.

As Harry followed Kitty's suggestion via a cheering charm and a tickling charm in succession Jean, Kurt and Kitty engaged Juggernaut. Kurt started porting everywhere around him trying to irritate him, while Jean started hitting him with TK blasts at range. Storm joined in as well, and massive bolts of lightning hammered into Juggernaut. Unfortunately all this martial bluster amounted to absolutely nothing, only Storm's blasts even making Juggernaut pause. Cain well knew however who his main threat was and barreled through ignoring their attacks moving toward Harry.

Evan pulled out as much of his bone armor as he could, literally covering himself in it, and jumped down to get in his way along with Blob. It was good that Fred was there as Evan was knocked aside easily. Blob however was pretty unmovable even by the juggernaut and stood his ground for a few moments.

This allowed Harry to pushing the now wildly laughing Logan to the ground and take stock of the situation. He paused a moment to take in the rather fetching sight of Ororo in her X-man uniform but shook himself, concentrating on more important things. "Who are the new blokes?"

Kurt bamfed in right next to him, gasping a little form all the bamfing he had been doing. Juggernaut may look slow but his punches came out quickly and even one would paste him. "They're, they're the brotherhood, our, well our adversaries normally. We ended up at the same camp, and they came along when Storm said that Mystique, their leader was in trouble." Harry frowned and surreptitiously pointed his fingers at each of them in turn, placing a spell on them to be activated later.

As the jet landed and let out those who weren't able to get to ground safely Scott tried to take control of the ongoing battle but Harry was well ahead of him. "Cyclops, start hammering him, aim for his head, try to blind him if nothing else. Kurt, you're looking a little knackered, you're on rescue duty, if he gets too close to any of the others, port them out of there. Big bloke I don't know, try to hold him in place, but get ready to not hear anything, I'm going to use a sound based attack on him, it seem eta be the only thing that gets through and I don't want you caught up in it. Anyone got something to rattle him with, get him off his feet?"

Lance spoke up from next to Toad, who was gulping fearfully at the sight of the big monster locked in combat with Fred, who now appeared to be losing. Quicksilver had already streaked off to look for Mystique. "I can, my powers based on creating earthquakes."

"That's handy, alright laddo, rattle his bones a bit!"

Lance grinned and complied as Jean and Scott took turns hammering away at the red armored giant, who despite the rumbling of the ground underneath him still stayed on his feet. Harry noticed now how that red crystal set into his chest seemed to glow a little brighter when the attacks impacted that shield. _So, part magical, part mutant, all nutter, lovely! _His own next sound attack went in, and again Cain howled in agony as his newly healed ears burst once more.

However this time it didn't incapacitate him, and Fred was at last toppled off his feet. Two blows landed on Fred, knocking him out before Kurt arrived, and ported him to safety.

With The Blob out of the way Lance really went to town, and Juggernaut collapsed to his knees. Rogue, who had been about to try to rush in and touch the big bastard reached forward and shrieked as his shield threw her away smoking. Kurt grabbed her out of midair and plopped her down, but she was out of the fight for now.

"We need to get his helmet off!" Jean yelled and upped the power of her attacks, thankful once again to Harry for putting her though his training, it was really paying off in terms of her endurance and projection.

We need someone to manually unbolt it from the rest of the armor." Scott said, still firing continuously. Cain still hadn't gotten back to his feet, the loss of his inner ear and the constant earthquakes combined to make it impossible for him to stand up, but eventually his Cytorak given healing factor would heal the damage to his ears and he would be able to get to his feet regardless of anything Lance did. Well, unless he wanted to make a new San Andreas Fault, but even that might not do more than slow Juggernaut down.

Harry shook his head. "it's the crystal that's the main problem, its generating some kind of magical shield. Take it out of the equation and he'll be much easier to deal with."

Evan got too close at this point, a rookie mistake that cost him as Cain lashed out smashing Evan to the ground. Kurt tried to port in and get him out of danger, but Cain had anticipated this and another swift blow lashed out, catching Kurt where he teleported in. "Kurt!" Kitty screamed as Kurt arched away, his body twitching and bloody.

Before anyone else could react Kitty phased in, trying to do the trick on Juggernaut what she had done to the tree last Sunday and hoping her phasing ability would save her from what happened to Rogue. It didn't. When she hit his magical shield though she screamed, and fell to the ground, convulsing. Toad and Storm's intervention that save her from having her head caved in from a kick. Toad grabbed her with his tongue and pulled her to safety and Storm roared, seeing some of her students and young friends down and injured, her self control gone.

_And suddenly this isn't a game anymore, _Harry thought, his mind suddenly going blank and slipping into full combat mode, something it hadn't done up until this point. "Cover me." he said, his voice flat and emotionless, sending a shiver up everyone's spine who heard it.

As Jean and Scott lent their firepower to Storm's monstrous assault, huge gusts of wind hammering into him along with massive bolts of lightning slashing down from the sky Harry summoned the sword of Gryffindor, a memento from his time in his original dimension, and teleported forward. This was sword that had been made by goblins and had been dipped in basilisk venom, the most venomous poison in the universe. It had thus become a sword whose tiniest slash would kill, no ifs ands or buts. The sword slashed out and rebounded off Juggernauts magical shield, but the impact threw him back slightly. Harry kept at it, dodging blows by the barest of centimeters and hammering back with all his power as all around him the others tried to hammer Cain while still missing him. He poured out his magic in now higher end spells and simply pure magic bolts of power slamming into Juggernaut. His shield began to flicker, failing at last under the constant magical assault.

With a wave of his hand he solidified the ground and yelled "Earthquake boy full power right under him, now!" Lance obeyed quickly and as the ground solidified Lances power lashed out, forcing the big man to his knees.

Harry apparated up, dodging another pucnh to stand on Cain's knees and slam his hand down on the crystal, his hand glowing with the power of a fully-powered **shatter shaker**, a spell that would normally shatter a whole castle of stone or metal or anything else. Yet as soon as he touched the crystal it dimmed suddenly, and Harry found his mind elsewhere.

* * *

Purple mist surrounded Harry and he looked around wondering where the hell he was. That Crystal thing was obviously some sort of connection to something or someone else, which was likely as the magic here was based on invocation, but who it was connected to and where he was now was a mystery. He seemed to be floating in midair, but there was no air around him, only the purple mist, reminding him of the Negative Zone. _Let's see,_ he thought to himself, _the crystal dimmed when I touched it, and I felt my magical reserves increase. But I didn't cast a spell or anything, could that be my mutant power? Taking the magic out of other people to add to my own? That would be certainly amusing, and it would explain why Charles couldn't figure it out, it only comes into play against other magical things, maybe other people. Maybe all those times I cast Praedia Bellica made the effect permanent. Not that I'm going to complain or anything._

"You are in my realm little mage." A voice sounded all around him and just as suddenly a bit of the mist disappeared and Harry found himself facing some kind of extra dimensional being. It was made of mist like the purple mist all around for a moment then it solidified to a formless man wearing red armor. His features were blank, his eyes empty sockets, and it seemed the only thing that defined his form was the red armor. And the giant jewel set into a gold circlet around its head. Even with the body of the being in front of him the voice sounded out all around him. "I am Cyttorak little mage. I am power!"

Harry looked around, pushing out his magical senses as far as he could. This realm may have been dominated by the being in front of him, but it certainly wasn't made by him. He seemed to have been pulled, or at least his consciousness was pulled into a pocket dimension of some kind. "Uh-huh, so what do you want with me, only I was sort of busy you know, beating that other big ruddy bastard down and hopefully ten feet under, and I'd like to get back to it."

"You cannot beat my avatar like that little mage. Despite the power you wield being so strange, it will not overcome the power I have invested into my Avatar in the universe. Yet your power intrigues me and the idea of seeing what you could do with my power backing you would be most interesting. Thus I would bargain with you."

Cyttorak began to make an appeal for Harry to become his avatar, but Harry had really already tuned him out, taking in the memories of Cain as they were flashing around him, showing how he had become an avatar. He had been a gangster while younger then joined up with a particularly shady group of explorers. The man had murdered all three of the other expedition members as soon as he realized there might actually be something there, and he had killed several people in his rampages since. That was enough for Harry, and he decided that the Juggernaut was going to die.

As the being wound down and seemed to stare at him expectantly Harry turned back to him his eyes hard emerald chips of controlled fury. He walked forward and suddenly shot his hand out grabbing the other entity by its arm. As he had expected the magical power of the being began to flow into him and the being tried to get away shouting angrily and smashing a fist into Harry's face. Harry moved with the blow easily maintaining contact. "What do I think!" he yelled. "I think that Earth is for humanity, and I want you and all like you to get the fuck out of my dimension!" With that the being gasping in agony as his powers had nearly been entirely taken by Harry already broke contact, with a viscous kick to his chest. With a very weak wave of his hand he banished Harry vowing never to come close to him again. He would have to ignore that dimension from now on, yet so be it. The youngsters touch had seared like fire, and it had also drained him of much of his power, tough it was flowing back into him now that the human was no longer touching him. Still, best to not go near one who had all the makings of a Defender of Life, especially one who could drain his power like that.

* * *

Harry's mind came back to the real world where nothing had happened for a few seconds then the gem on Juggernaut's armor shattered into a million pieces.

Cain cried out in agony and then fear as he began to shrink inside his armor, his Cyttorak given strength and size boost gone leaving him with only his mutant strength, which while formidable was nowhere near what it had been. As the others faltered in their attacks at the sudden reversal, Harry grimly latched onto Cain's helmet and using his new strength ripped it off his head, tossing it aside to de-power later. Harry twirled away, bringing his sword up in a vicious ark aiming for Cain's neck.

Yet before he could finish the swing Charles shouted aloud from where he had just exited the mansion. "No, no killing, not here!"

Harry turned to them angrily, but seeing the youngsters looking on saw his point. None of them were ready to see death first hand. "Fine, I'll take him somewhere else to do the deed."

"NO!" Charles shouted again, rolling up to him and staring angrily up at him. "No killing at all! You've beaten him and somehow taken the majority of his power, let him be returned to he prison he came from and that will be an end of it.

Harry growled. "Charles I know he's your brother but he's a murder dozens of times over, and look what nearly happened to the kids!"

"It is not that Mr. Potter." Charles said sternly. "At least not just that. You cannot simply kill your enemies all the time Harry, you must give them a chance to reform. More you are not judge, jury or executioner. That is only the power of the state, not us." Scott and the other still moving X-Men nodded at that, seeing it as simply good sense. The brotherhood shrugged uncaring just staring on at the discussion.

Harry nearly did it anyway, but refrained, more for the kid's sake than anything else. "That's strike two Charles. On your head be it, every life he takes from now on, because you stopped me from ending it right here and now." Charles flinched at the grim certainty in Harry's tone, but he nodded anyway.

Without another word he turned and shot a full powered **stupefy** into Cain's chest where he was trying to recover from the agony of his magical power being ripped out of him, knocking him out. Then he moved over to Rogue who was now standing on her own despite the shock she took. "Rogue." She looked at him questioningly. "Drain him." Harry ordered, pointing over his shoulder at Cain. "Completely."

Rogue gulped a little but nodded and moved forward, laying her un-gloved hand on Cain's head. After a few moments, she pulled away her body a little taller and stronger looking but that was all. She moved over and lifted up a downed tree with ease, shocking all those who were looking.

Harry nodded grimly then went over to Kurt and Kitty's comatose forms levitating them off the ground as Storm picked up her nephew. The two turned to go inside but Harry paused momentarily to look over at the group of brotherhood mutants clustered around one another, seeing to Fred's injuries. "Tell your leader I'll be in touch. I've heard Xavier's spiel, I'll want to hear hers to." One or two of them nodded their heads, but Quicksilver simply looked a little distrusting and Harry shrugged, waving a hand and activating a pervious spell he had set on them to erase everything about his fighting abilities from their minds and then moved inside levitating Kurt and kitty before him.

* * *

End chapter

And there we have arguments, training and Juggernaut, who has lost nearly all his powers and will not be a threat for a long time to come if ever. And now Rogue has the strength she had in the comics, though not the flight ability which will be solved soon for her and the others as it will be for Harry.

I tried to mix up origin stories for Juggernaut here to make a complete picture, simply because none of the others made much sense to me. Anyway I hope everyone liked this monster of a chapter, but don't get used to it.

As always read and review.

Belsham-trees, in case people don't get it, are trees with tentacles. Belshamharoth is a tentacle monstrosity from Terry Pratchett's Discworld series.


	6. Let's Have a Little Race

I don't own Potter of Marvel.

Remember what I said about monster chapters, well, here's another one. the next one will be out in three weeks, but my marvel muse would just not let me be until i wrote this.

Some good reviews I would like to mention:

_Narsil: _ Moral decisions are difficult to understand from once removed, but you are correct that at that time Xavier was correct, and I did that on purpose to showcase another difference between Harry and him, something that will be pointed out again in this chapter.

_Preier:_ Harry was disappointed in his performance too.

SerialKiller: In that case you should like this chapter.

_TJG_: the T there stands for telepathy doesn't it? You'll notice I had some of the same ideas you had in this chapter, as well as a bit more, hope you like it.

For those familiar with the X-men Evolution episodes, I switched around the chronology of the two episodes Shadowed Past and Grim Reminder. Grim Reminder is first, to give the X-people something to do.

I have a bit of an announcement at the end of the chapter, but lets get this lengthy show on the road.

* * *

**Chapter 6 Let's have a little race**

Harry and Ororo took the three injured swiftly to the hospital wing and got to work on them. Fred, the only one of the brotherhood who had been injured walked away under his own power, and the four of them left swiftly after Harry went inside, with their still comatose leader being carried by Pietro (though not until after he took a bit of a feel before showing up with her, he didn't actually like the bitch all that much but he still thought she was hot).

As Harry laid Kurt on one of the beds he castigated himself fiercely about how he acted today, and the kids, for that was what they all were to him, just kids despite their powers, had paid for it.

The bed's medical scanner, a mix of MRI and x-ray that had initially been developed by Reed and a Henry Pym, and was now used worldwide in many of top tier hospitals, went to work and Harry raised a hand. Hedwig appeared at that moment, carrying a bottle of healing potion, which Harry took from her swiftly. Kitty was surprisingly worse than she looked, on the outside she only looked a little singed but inside the damage was much worse. She was suffering from a severe system shock, as if whatever had hit her had just fried her nerves right under the skin. So she was fed the potion first, and then Harry began to cast several healing spells that were aimed to heal the nerves over her, thankful beyond words that Hermione had made him promise to learn them after he had been hit by the cruciatus at the end of fourth year.

Harry worked on Kitty like this for thirty minutes while Ororo looked over Kurt and Evan. Evan was merely knocked out, the first version of his bone armor having protected him from worse than a concussion. Kurt on the other hand had several cracked ribs, and was having trouble breathing. Rogue too came in to be checked, but her shock after touching Cryttorak's shield was far less than Kitty's, more like an electrical jolt than some kind of torture that Kitty had suffered, probably because she had only tried to tag him with her hand not her full body like Shadowcat. Ororo swiftly turned her around after giving her a sip from Harry's healing potion, concentrating her work on Evan and Kurt, using some of the medical equipment to ease the blue-furred German boy's breathing. Luckily there was no permanent damage, and a few healing spells from Harry once he was done with Kitty would set him right.

About an hour later Harry had done all he could. All three of the injured would recover, but Kitty in particular would have to rest for the next few days. Once all three were sleeping peacefully after sharing a mild sleeping potion, Harry and Ororo left them there.

Harry was still filled with self-loathing for his shortcomings but Ororo saw this and stopped him before he could walk away. "Stop." She said firmly. Harry turned to look at her, his face sorrowful. "This is not your fault Harry Potter, so don't even think it is. You weren't the one who broke that lunatic out, you weren't the one who hurt our charges, you weren't even the one who called the kids in, none of this is your fault."

"Yes it is!" Harry burst out angrily. "If I had taken Juggernaut as seriously as I should have from the start I could have ended it before the kids arrived. If I had, none of them would have been injured! But no, I heard he was Baldy's brother, and just saw it as a silly family spat despite their powers!"

"So that means you made a mistake, it does not mean you are at fault." Ororo answered calmly. "You cannot take responsibility for all that went wrong. Yes I'll admit you should have taken it more seriously, but you seemed to have started with that attack that caught Logan. And after that…"

"Yeah punk, it anyone should be blaming themselves it's me." Logan walked in, a morose, almost beaten look on his face and a bear in one hand. He had held it together to help Jean, Scott and Chuck return Cain to the Vault (and boy had Chuck had to talk quick to explain how they caught him and what had happened to him) and then returned with the intention of drinking away his problems. _All those years devoted to mediation, all those sessions with Chuck and I still fall into a damn berserk state! _Hearing Harry, the guy who had taken Juggernaut down in the end blame himself had broken him out of his own depression, at least for a moment. He took a sip from his bear then pointed one claw at Harry. "You remind me a lot of guys I used to know during the war. The guys that were out in the woods, who were in the field, in danger for so long it became second nature to them. Once they realized they weren't in any danger they went all to pieces, they lost the edge and couldn't regain it. You were able to slip back into combat mode eventually punk and you did good. Not only beat Cain, but made it so he'll never be the threat he was before."

Ororo nodded firmly. "If you weren't here Logan would almost certainly have never been able to slow Juggernaut down, and Charles would be dead before I could have returned with the students, and that supposes they could have handled him without you. Do not blame yourself for this outcome." Logan nodded agreement. He knew his limitations. Logan would bet on himself against anyone he could actually injure, but that shield of Juggernaut had stymied him completely.

Harry looked at her fierce determined face and slowly nodded, then without warning leaned in and kissed her on the cheek. He pulled back quickly but he was smiling when he did, and so was she, despite her surprise at the act. "Thanks, Ororo." He then turned to Logan. "What was up with that anyway Hairy One? Why the bloody hell did you attack me like that?"

Logan grimaced as the trio made their way to the TV room. "I was raised by a pack of wolverines in the wilds of Canada kid, ain't got no idea who my parents were. Anyway I took on some of their attributes, including falling into a berserker rage if I'm in too much pain. It's sometimes been my greatest strength, most of the time my worst weakness. Your sound attack managed to just, to just smash through all my defenses and cause the inner animal to come out. And because you were the one that did it, I kept on targeting you rather than Cain." He sat down in one of the chairs and took a long pull from his beer before slamming it back down. "All that time I spent with Chuck working on getting better and when it matters the most I can't keep control!"

Harry shook his head. "If I'm not allowed to blame myself neither are you Logan, it was just damn dumb luck and me not realizing what could happen with my sound attack." Ororo nodded firmly, sitting down on the sofa next to him. The trio sat silent for a time, each lost in their own thoughts. Harry though back about it and, was thankful Charles had stopped him. He wouldn't have shed a tear if Cain had died in battle but executing him afterward in cold blood, no that wasn't something he would have done if he had been wholly rational. Yet at the same time he knew Cain should be facing the death penalty at the very least for what he had done since gaining his powers, but probably wasn't. After all, he had been broken out once, who was to say the person who did it couldn't do it again anytime they wanted, just like back in his old dimension and Chez-Azkaban. If it was a choice between letting Cain live and possibly escape to misuse his powers again, or feeling guilty afterward Harry knew what he would choose, but in the end Charles had stopped him, and he would be the one that would carry that burden.

At that point Jean and Scott came in having changed back to their normal clothing followed quickly by Rogue. Jean was the first to speak asking, "So, um, what will we be doing about the wilderness survival camp? I mean, we did leave rather suddenly."

"And Evan and the others won't be up for anything for a few days," Ororo mused. She looked speculatively at Logan and Harry.

"You do it." Harry said bluntly, pointing a finger at Logan. "I have projects to work on." _Including hunting down whoever it is that's been watching the house. _Harry thought grimly. _I want to make bloody certain that whoever is watching doesn't see a damn thing. They shouldn't have been able to see anything today, but I'm not going to leave that to chance. After that I'll spend some time in the Danger Room tonight, and then resume working on my projects tomorrow when Logan is training the X-men. Logan's right, I've been too complacent, I need to get my edge back. _"The sooner I get my current projects done, the sooner I can figure out a way to create a suit that'll give the team more protection."

Logan grunted angrily, but agreed. Storm spoke up then. "I think I'll join in the training as well, it could be good for you all to fight another opponent. Though I trust all of you will be taking the training seriously from now on?" She stared sternly at all three of the students who all nodded firmly. Fighting Juggernaut and seeing Harry in action when he was serious had been a major wake up call. They all thought they were tough and getting stronger quickly, but that was before Cain took their best shots and kept on coming never treating them more than nuisances.

A short time after Jean and Ororo both left to spend time watching the wounded, and Rogue simply decided to go and listen to some music and wait to see how long it would take for her power up from draining Juggernaut would last while Scott went up to his room to think about what they could have done better. He was a little resentful of Harry taking command like he had, but he realized that Harry had handled it as well as it could have been handled. Juggernaut was simply one hell of an opponent. But that didn't mean he didn't think he could have done better as a leader.

Harry's time was spent a bit more aggressively. First he went up to his room and grabbed his invisibility cloak. Then he went out and hunted down the watcher down the street. It turned out to be a man dressed almost exactly like the poster child for a spy, tie, good suit and all. He was blond, with short cropped hair and a stern jaw, who look incredibly bored as Harry found him. By this Harry deduced that the weak notice-me-not ward he had installed, designed to simply make it seem as if nothing interesting was going on in the mansion, had worked very well. _Good, I was worried that Juggernaut had broken it when he shattered the intent-based defensive ward. _

With a silent stupefy the man fell asleep at his post on the balcony of the house he was apparently living in. "That says something about the money and planning of whoever he works for," Harry muttered, checking the man's wallet. Inside he found a badge with a bird design on the back of it and the acronym SHIELD, as well as several different I.D.'s none of which he assumed was real. Harry didn't recognize the unit or group or whatever it was, certainly Reed and the others had never mentioned a group called that. _ Hmm, that means they are really secretive, don't trust the FF for some reason, or are new, ah well, it doesn't matter which really. _ He worked quickly after that, placing a tracking charm on the man and a bit of a confundus spell that made him think he had spent the entire day stuck inside throwing up with food poisoning. He had no idea how this guy contacted his superiors, but he wanted him to have another reason for not having seen any of the action, regardless of whether he had checked in yet today or not. A bowel issue was embarrassing enough even a spy wouldn't include it in his report unless pressed. _No way would the changes in Cain go unnoticed if this group is at all confident, so I need this guy to have an excuse to not have noticed. Something that can't be traced back to me or to Baldy the mind tweaker, at least not right away. I doubt anyone would think the straight-laced Chuck would use something like that after all_. After that he placed a tracking spell on the man then left, fighting the urge to leave some kind of prank that would activate if the man was brought in for questioning. But he didn't want to make more enemies right now, not until the issue between him and Charles stabilized one way or another.

With that Harry went back to the mansion and moved into the Danger Room. Everyone else save Charles had already gone to bed, exhausted from the battle, allowing Harry to have some privacy. _I know what Ororo said, and I agree with her for the most part, but I could have done so much better even after I started taking Juggernaut seriously. I could have done so much more with indirect spells, but I never even thought of them, despite my using them and runes so often in my pranks. I have to get my edge back. Regardless of anything else, I know now there are people out there who can push me to use everything I've got, well, below my BI spells, at least I hope that there isn't anyone who can force me to use those. _What Harry called his BI or Bloody Insane spells, were spells he had developed in the Negative Zone. They were designed for one thing and one thing only: utter and complete annihilation. Several of them could in various ways destroy an entire planet. Harry had not been kidding when he said there were denizens that could wipe out humanity with a thought. Harry had fought a single member of one such, and had used two of the UI spells to finally kill him (or it, Harry was uncertain afterward if the bastard even had a gender) as well as the planetoid the fight had occurred on.

Still that was unimportant for now, and the Danger Room created a slightly smaller version of the Juggernaut, programmed with all the data he could tell the Danger Room of his abilities. After a moment it roared and charged Harry. "Let's dance," he whispered, green lightning sparking in his eyes.

* * *

Mystique woke up with a groan and a curse. The curse was not because of the pain, as a spy and a fighter she was used to pain. No, the groan came because of how stupid she had been to think that Cain Marko would be willing to work with her. "That's what I get for not reading his entire profile." She muttered. "Egotistical asshole."

Pietro's voice answered her from the side. "Yeah well, maybe if you had also, you know told **us** what the hell you were doing we would have been in a better position to help you."

Lances voice cut in sharply at that point. "Fuck that, that bastard was willing to take us all on and might have done us all in if that new X-guy Potter didn't beat him down."

Mystique sat up quickly looking at them all standing around a sofa she was laying on. She saw they were back at the small dorm house she had bought them and frowned ferociously. "All right, how long was I out, how the hell did I get back here, and what the hell happened?"

Todd Tolansky, the Toad, a small misshapen boy who looked very much like his powers had twisted his body to match answered her. "Well, ya see, we were at the survival camp with the X-dorks when their plane showed up and took them away to help fight the big red. Then we went with them because that black MILF of theirs said that you were in trouble too. We show up and throw down with the big red and then well…" Elsewhere a certain Nubian goddess had a sudden desire to fry some toads and wondered why.

Lance took up the tale. "We didn't do too hot to be honest, Toad couldn't do anything to him, Fred could barely match his strength for a few minutes and even at almost full power I couldn't do much either. And Pietro had left to look for you." _And hadn't come back like a fucking coward, but that's going to be 'discussed' between us later, no need to mention it now_. "Potter, the new X-teacher, he took command of us and the X-men, tried to keep us all safe while hammering the big guy but it didn't work so well. Rogue and Kitty, I mean Shadowcat went down when they touched the big guys shield and then Kurt went down and well, Potter went crazy. After a bit he got in close, Juggernaut somehow lost some of his power and then Rogue drained the rest and that was it. We were lucky Fred was only hurt a little, I don't think any of the three X-dudes that went down are going to be moving any time soon." He scowled a little. Lance was always trying to measure himself up to Scott as a leader and a fighter, and he felt they were pretty even. Maybe if he was honest Scott was a little more powerful and more, well more leader-ish, but Lance thought it was close. Potter though, he was on a whole other level, and the battle as a whole showed Lance that he and the rest of the Brotherhood had a lot of work to do before they were ready to play with the adults.

Mystique scowled at the lost opportunity but at least it wasn't a total loss. "So you saw Harry Potter's powers, what are they?"

The four teens all looked uncomfortable, scuffing their toes and glancing away not meeting her eyes. Toad spoke up then. "Um, well see, it, we, we don't know. We know he was fighting and that he took out the big guy at the end almost by himself, but other than that, none of us can remember for the life of us how he did it." The spell Harry had activated on the four teens was a very targeted version of the '**Confoundus'** charm that completely scrambled their memories of his powers. They would eventually be able to piece together what they had seen in a month or two, but for now none of them had any idea what his powers were. They didn't even remember Kitty using the word 'spell'.

Mystique stared at them, a deep scowl on her face. _So Charles will go to such lengths to keep this punks powers a secret? Or was it Potter himself? _ Her thoughts were interrupted when Lance spoke up again. "But he was a weird one, he argued with the bald guy about how it would be better to kill big red rather then put him away, and then as we were leaving he told us he'd be in touch. He said he wants to 'hear your sales pitch' too."

"Hmmm." Mystique said, unable to figure out what the hell that meant. If he didn't believe in Xavier's cause, then why the hell was he living with them? "Well whatever, but you say you weren't doing too well? The answer for that is simple, training. And since you all left that survival camp, that means we have the rest of the week to train." She smiled evilly, and all four of the boys gulped worriedly.

* * *

Harry was incredibly sore the next day but was also pleased. After spending half the night training in the Danger Room he spent the rest of the night working on the thorniest part of creating a ward for a non-magical to use continually: power. By the end of the night he had figured out a power source, now he just had to figure out how to create a runic array that would feed off it. Bio-energy, the energy a living body gave off, could be used as a power source, and Harry thought that it would be strong enough to power something like the ward for Ororo, but not something like a flight array, and maybe not something for Rogue. That still eluded him, unless he could figure out a way to draw more bio-energy from the individual without actually harming them. It would of course mean the person had to take in more energy in terms of food, but that was ok.

When he walked into her arboretum he found Ororo already naked and sitting at the table waiting for him. She smiled in welcome and he smiled back despite how sore he was. After taking off his own clothes, making a point of not noticing how Ororo's eyes trailed over his muscles and new bruises (fairs' fair after all) he sat down across from her. "Well, how are you this morning milady?"

"Better than you obviously," Ororo said rather tartly. "I take it you decided to beat yourself up despite my admonishments that what occurred was not your fault?"

"I did indeed, but on the plus side I also found an energy source that could work on the ward I am designing for you. Could you spare sometime this week to make certain what I have so far works? Say a few minutes of our morning time together? I want to make certain it works before I start work on anything permanent."

Ororo's frown turned into a smile. She was looking forward to not watching her emotions, and could think of several fun ways the two of them could 'test' the ward designed to block her emotional connection to local weather. She frowned inside remembering some of the names her boyfriend in college had called her. Of course her relationship, if that was even the word for a single night, back on the Serengeti plain wasn't even considered, there had been no emotional connection there, it was merely a physical thing. Though there had been that other boy from a foreign tribe when she was younger, but he left, and anyway at that time she didn't know to watch her emotions.

No it was the boyfriend who she had when she went to college that she remembered most. _A cold fish am I? Frigid, unresponsive am I? I wonder what he would say if he knew how much it took not to flay him to the bone every time he finished without taking any consideration for my needs! Hmph. _Yes, Ororo Munroe had quite a bit of frustration to work off, not that she would push things that far too quickly. No, the connection that was growing between her was too much fun to rush like that. That didn't mean they couldn't have some fun though…"That is wonderful new truly. I am looking forward to being able to show more of my emotions." The gleam in Harry's eyes told her he was looking forward to it too, and she went on hurriedly. "It will be nice to see if I can connect more with our students without it getting in the way."

"I'm sure it will," Harry said, in a tone that implied far more than the words. But then he sipped his tea and changed the subject, asking if Ororo knew of any other groups like the FF or any other adult mutants. The discussion lasted the rest of their morning together, and both of them walked out to face the rest of the day in much better moods than they had been.

* * *

The three teens able to move came down to see a high calorie breakfast waiting for them and Logan and the other adults already eating. Harry was fixing up three plates for the invalids and waved his hand at Jean. The redhead's eyebrow began to twitch violently at seeing all the sausages bacon and other fatty things on the table. Jean sat down, her eyebrow twitching even more violently as Harry walked off. She sat down at a place well down the table from where she normally sat and began to fix herself a very small plate of food, hoping that the change of place would save her from the trap Harry had no doubt laid down for her.

Logan smirked a little. "I wouldn't bother Grey, Potter's probably figured out a way to keep ya here until you eat as much as he wants ya to."

Ororo nodded, smiling a little as she had seen how Harry had set up this particular trick. "Indeed, and you should eat anyway. I realize you all had some leftover pasta last night, but you also all used your powers far more than normal yesterday, you need the energy if you're going to get through training today. You'll be working with me, and you too Rogue. We'll be working on power projection and hand to hand combat." Both girls looked at her in surprise and Ororo smiled. "There are some moves and techniques that a woman can teach that a man cannot and I have decided that I wish to involve myself in your physical training more."

Logan looked over at Scott. "You're with me Summers, we'll be working on hand to hand and physical endurance as well as some other things." Scott nodded, knowing he was in for a very painful time.

Charles smiled, happy that the others had organized things already. "I've already called the camp where you were all supposed to stay and gave them your excuses, so don't worry about that."

The conversation then split, with the adults talking about the consequences of yesterday's battle and the three teens discussing the same thing though on a more personal level.

Rogue had been astonished this morning when she went to turn off her alarm that she still had the super strength that taken from Cain yesterday. Rather than simply tap the darn thing she had crushed it with two fingers. In fact, while the memories he had gotten from him had already faded (a side effect of his being unconscious when she drained him, his memories were only of the short term and very quickly gone) his strength had stayed with her and showed no sign of leaving. She was due a short stop in the research lab because of that, to make certain that there wasn't any lasting harm done to her and to check and see if she still had her original powers. She hoped that was not the case; that draining Cain completely had broken her power leaving her with his super strength and durability instead, but she wasn't too hopeful.

Scott tried to get the two girls to talk about the fight in an attempt to go over what they could have done differently, but Jean headed him off, opening a three-way discussion about school and classes. While Rogue was in the grade below the other two she was taking some of the same classes they had and they shared some stories about teachers and classmates while the adults had their much more serious conversation, talking about the ramifications of what had occurred the day before.

Charles had to talk very quickly to explain how Cain had lost most of his powers, and the story he had come up with was probably not believed by the head warden of the prison. He well knew that mutant-kind wasn't ready to be forced into the spotlight just yet, and Harry's powers would cause consternation and fear in both hate groups and certain religious institutions. Charles was hopeful however that his fast talking had worked well enough for now to keep attention off them for a while longer.

* * *

It hadn't.

Nick Fury, the head of the new overarching intelligence institution name SHIELD was incensed. He was a man who wanted to know everything he could, the more he knew the better he could perform his duties, which put simply was the defense of the world and America in particular. Well, to be honest it was just America at the moment, none of the other nations that had been asked to join up had been willing to pony up the cash or trust an American chosen head just yet, but that was neither here nor there. And even when they did SHIELD would have no jurisdiction in China or Russia or India, and very little in Africa. Still that was neither here nor there.

Yesterday a super threat had escaped from the Vault, one of the most secure prisons on the planet. Today said super threat, someone on the order of the Hulk and some of the extraterrestrials the FF had faced (and the FF themselves, though that was a tightly guarded secret) could be barely classified as a threat. The Juggernaut, whose super strength was on par with the Hulk or that other extra-terrestrial that had shown up a month or so ago, the one who called himself Thor, was now without said strength. He had also lost his mystical armor and his shield which protected him from nearly all damage. His strength, which even without mystical aid should have been almost at Ben Grimm's level given their analysis, was now far, far less, barely above human norm. Something had happened to take his mystical and mutant powers away while he was free and Nick Fury had no idea what.

He knew when and where it had to have happened though. Xavier's school, it was the only explanation. After all it was Charles that had subdued Cain the first time, and he had returned his half-brother to the Vault this time. The man may have gotten the okay from someone in the government under the table to have a school for mutants, but Fury knew there was more going on than just teaching them how to control their powers, especially with his old friend Logan there. And whatever had happened to Cain Marko had happened there. Unfortunately despite this knowledge his man on sight was unable to tell him anything.

When asked by his supervisor Agent Barton had told the man that he hadn't seen anything, which was so out there Fury had contacted the man himself. When pressed Clint admitted to having spent practically the entire afternoon in the bathroom with bowel issues. Shit happens, if anyone knew that Fury did, but this was remarkably well timed shit. No, something was going on and if it didn't have something to do with this Potter kid that came out of nowhere and became friends with the Fantastic Four, Nick would eat his eye-patch. He decided to send a few more undercover agents into Bayville when he could. When that would be he didn't know yet, SHIELD had quite a few logs in the fire right now, but he was going to do it and find out what the hell Harry Potter was.

* * *

Kitty and the others were woken up by the delicious smells wafting from the large trays Harry was carrying as he came into the medical wing. Kitty opened her eyes and Kurt sat up quickly, while Evan kept his eyes closed but turned his head toward the smell. Light hurt his eyes right now, but he was certain if food was the first thing he saw the pain would go away.

"Hey guys" Harry said setting one tray down between Evan and Kitty, and the other one next to Kurt, whose appetite was very like a certain orange-haired Gryffindor, though Kurt had much better table manners. "How are you three feeling?"

"Crappy," Kurt said bluntly, grabbing up a fork. "Exhausted, like a punching bag or a piece of tenderized meat, take your pick, but ve'll live I think."

"Yeah what he said" Kitty said, already digging into her oatmeal (heavy on the sugar and cinnamon and with extra raisins, just like she liked it) with a spoon while she was already chewing on a sausage. She waited a moment to swallow before going on. "That big guy was tough but hey, we're all alive. Did you have to use some of your magic to heal us?"

"Yep. But even with that you all will be bedridden for at least two days. Still that doesn't mean we can't work on your thinking and tactical planning, so that's what we'll be doing in the mornings and a bit of the afternoon." Kurt and Evan groaned but still nodded agreement along with Kitty.

Kurt, who had already polished one plate of sausages and eggs asked. "As nice as breakfast in bed is, it's a pity that ve missed your normal war with Jean." They all laughed a little at that.

* * *

Jean had finished as much of breakfast as she wanted to eat, and was now searching around for the rune holding her in place. She first checked her back, not wanting to fall to the same trick twice. After a few minutes spent searching, she frowned, not having found anything. She looked at the table wondering and then at the others, none of whom, not even the professor had left. In fact Charles had a resigned expression on his face and had leaned back, reading a newspaper he had pulled out from behind his chair.

The others were still eating of course, but the professor still being there was very odd… After another moments thought Jean stuck her head underneath the table again, but this time concentrated on the carpet underneath the table. There, about as large as the table above it was a rune of some kind.

She didn't know what it was but it was a simple 'hold' rune, modified to hold them all in place. If she knew that she could have simply waited it out but...

She sat up and began to summon her power then frowned as her stomach rumbled a little, reminding her it was still hungry at the same time she felt the professor's stern regard. Giving it up as a bad idea she sighed and began to eat her fill, and not two minutes later the rune dissipated, having consumed its power without Harry there to power it. Ororo noticed this and smiled inwardly at the little trick.

* * *

About an hour after breakfast had settled, Rogue and Jean met with Storm in the Danger Room. Jean had spent that time checking in with their friends and found them sitting up and having a leisurely breakfast with Harry while discussing new ways to use their powers. Rogue had spent that time in the research lab with the professor checking her over, and had found that her strength seemed to have become permanent! It was a shock to her, but she was happy as well as this made her a more powerful member of the team.

Ororo had converted half the room to a target range, with dozens of small moving targets at one end while the other half had been turned into a martial arts dojo. She stood in the target range section and motioned Jean and Rogue to join her. "Today we will be working on strength, target practice, and martial arts training." She twirled away suddenly and a lightning bolt shot out of her hand with a violent crack shooting downrange to destroy one of the smallest targets. "First, target practice. Jean stand over here, Rogue come over here and pick up this spear." The spears were a suggestion of Harry's from their discussion that morning in her arboretum. Each spear was about seven feet long and made entirely of metal. The things were very heavy, but with Rogue's newfound strength they felt about as light as toothpicks. "We'll work on that for an hour or so, and then Jean you'll work on the strength exercises Harry had you doing while Rogue you will work on controlling your new strength and finding its limitations until lunchtime. Don't think I didn't see what you did to that chair arm or the knives and forks young lady." Rogue shrugged her shoulders, a little embarrassed, but not so much, still enjoying her newfound strength.

While Harry spent the day going over new ideas for weapons and ways to use their powers with Evan and the others, Storm worked Jean and Rogue to the bone. Rogue learned to control her powers, though it was hard, she had never felt as physically powerful before. Before today she was barely benching 60 pounds, but now it was more like 60 tons! Jean too was feeling stronger, though in her case it was if her powers had risen to the occasion yesterday and now that was their new norm.

Their target practice sessions however couldn't be more different. While Jean quickly got the hand of hitting even the smallest targets, it turned out Rogue had absolutely no eye for long range weapons. They had gone back to target practice after spending most of the morning on control and Ororo shrugged philosophically as Rogue missed one of the large targets yet again. "Well that is what training is for, though we might tell Harry not to build that taser gun he was planning for you until you can use it properly. On the other hand he did say the team needed a tank more than another long range specialist, so you are in a way a godsend Rogue."

Rogue smiled happily, setting the spear she was holding back into its holder. Ororo went on motioning the two girls to follow her. "Now let's do some stretches and then I will show you some martial arts katas." The stretches were vastly different and far better for the two girls than the ones Logan normally used. They were designed to limber them up rather than build muscles like the ones he used, Logan simply thought one exercise fits all. When they were done warming up Ororo showed them several holds and moves from Aikido to start with, a soft style that Logan didn't use. Jean took to it like a duck to water, but Rogue wanted something different to use with her strength. Ororo suggested boxing and kickboxing lessons, both of which Logan could help with. Grappling however did have its uses for Rogue, especially given her powers, and she learned several holds easily from Ororo, while she was careful to not actually touch the younger girl's skin.

Both girls learned that in this as in teaching languages Ororo was a truly gifted teacher. She was able to explain things simply, showed every move she wanted them to learn first, and corrected their mistakes easily. Both girls realized they enjoyed learning this way, and despite some misgivings about how important hand to hand skills truly was, put their hearts into it.

Scott was learning some of the same, but Logan also had him check to see if he was comfortable with some hand to hand weapons, and started training him on using a knife. He wasn't very at home with anything hand to hand, and only really went through the motions, something that Logan saw but didn't really know how to correct.

When they met up for dinner and she heard that Scott was learning knife work, Ororo's lips twitched very slightly, that was all. _Perhaps later I can show him some of my own knife work,_ Ororo thought, remembering how she had learned to protect herself with a knife as a thief in Cairo and kept it up later. After all a young girl on her own needed a hidden secret to protect herself at times. None of the youngsters noticed her reaction and even if they had seen it all of them were too tired to wonder about it. That night, despite having left the endurance camp, every X-man went to bed exhausted. Harry however wasn't.

* * *

That night Harry spent his time coming to grips with his new magical strength in the Danger Room, something he had ignored last night with his eagerness to get some real practice in. He had belatedly realized he had fought far too directly against an opponent after he should have realized that tactic wasn't working and he took on Juggernaut with indirect spells, illusions, attacks on his senses, conjuration and transfiguration to hold him in place, and other tactics.

Now casting a spell on himself he whistled a little at the number that floated in the air like mist for a few seconds in yellow before dissipating. "400,000 wow, that's almost, that's about twice as strong as I was before, I think, never really checked myself when I was in the Negative Zone." _I'll check back in a few days, but if that's permanent damn, just bloody damn. _The spell was designed to test a magic user's power level using something called a UOM, or unit of magic. Hermione was the one who found it somehow in the library at school and she had tried to explain what a UOM was once in fourth year but Harry had been too busy trying to ignore how good she smelled sitting next to him to actually listen.

After a moment's thought he muttered "**Magia Erebea**," and began to go through some exercises. He quickly determined that the spell was now doing far more than before. Where before the spell would augment his speed and durability now his strength was also massively reinforced. It seemed the magic had, for want of a better word, a preference as to what it wanted to do. While he had no real way to tell, he thought he might be as strong as Ben, or maybe as strong as Rogue was now. His durability too had been greatly enhanced, so much so that his crisis suit was redundant. Not that he was going to stop wearing it of course. "I said it before but wow."

After that Harry went to bed, deciding not to pull an all-nighter again lest Ororo be irritated with him, she had been talking to Hedwig earlier for some reason, and he wouldn't put it past his familiar to decide to rat him out, for his own good of course.

* * *

The next day Jean woke up determined to speak to Ororo about flying, having had simply the most magnificent dream of doing so **ever**, and waking up early feeling great despite her exertions yesterday. She had dreamed about flying since she was a little girl, and she knew that she was strong enough telekinetically to do it now, all that remained was figuring out how, and Ororo was the only one who could possibly help her. She knew the older woman spent her mornings in her arboretum so she went there first.

What she didn't know was that Ororo and Harry spent their mornings together there. Nor did she know they spent those mornings naked in Ororo's case, and almost naked in Harry's. When she walked in she found the two of standing next to a table, touching a large stone with a series of very small runes on it. They turned slightly to look at her and Jean froze completely.

She had seen Harry in a similar state once before, but still this was just… _Of course I've seen Duncan's chest and muscles when he takes his shirt off to try and impress me, and the other cheerleaders of course, as if I can't tell what he's thinking even without using my powers hmmf, but he's all heavy muscle and built for upper body power_. Harry looked like a swimmer, wide shoulders, incredibly toned, a stomach you could use as a table and those abs looked just yummy to the redhead. His scars too were intriguing and she wondered where they all came from, she just knew there was a story behind every one of them, and she wondered if she would ever learn them.

Ororo too was enticing, a thought that surprised Jean greatly. She had always known the older woman was gorgeous of course, something that had made all three of the younger girls a little jealous from time to time, but seeing her like this was something else. Her dark chocolate nipples, her milk chocolate breasts and unblemished skin was incredibly **something**, making the younger girl question her preferences for a moment. And that didn't even mention her long legs or "Wow, I really didn't think you would shave down there, a lightning bolt, really?"

The two nominal adults looked at her for a moment contemplatively as her face grew as red as her hair in mortification when she realized she had said that out loud and what she was seeing. Then Harry shook his head and laughed a little and Ororo asked "Jean dear, since you're standing there could you check the weather outside for me?"

Jean looked out the glass wall of the arboretum by the door grateful for the distraction and was grateful when she heard the rustle of clothing as they dressed. Well Harry dressed, Ororo wasn't embarrassed or irritated so saw no need. "U-uh, um it's looking really windy, the wind was really picking up for a moment but it seems to have settled down."

"I see." Ororo said sadly, leaning away from the table. "I'm sorry Harry, but that one doesn't seem to work either. I was feeling quite amused there, in fact I was feeling the equivalent of falling down laughing at Jean's face, though it was much closer than the last one"

Harry nodded and made a note on a little notepad by his chair before turning to Jean. "You my dear need to work on knocking. Unless you're doing it on purpose of course, than please carry on."

Ororo giggled a little at that while outside the wind picked up once more for a few seconds before dying down, but Jean had recovered enough of her poise to shoot back sharply "Oh grow up Harry, you're not** that** good looking. And I was looking for Ororo anyway."

Harry paused buttoning up the last button on his shirt, staring off into the distance in silent contemplation. A lightning bolt slammed into him from out of nowhere knocking him out of it, and he shook himself. "Right sorry, next time be more careful about feeding my inner pervert like that. But anyway, back to the drawing board for me, I'll leave you two ladies alone."

Ororo mock scowled at him then he left bowing his way out grandly. Jean growled a little while Ororo merely chuckled, waving the other girl over to join her. Jean did so, still a little flustered despite her earlier bravado, and a little on edge given Ororo's continued state of undress. "So why did you wish to talk to me so early Jean? If you wanted to ask about help shaving you could have asked me for that later if neither of the other girls are up to it."

"No! Well I mean yes, that would be nice, but that's not what I wanted to talk to you about. I wanted to ask you, well I wanted to ask you to help me learn to fly." Jean said. "I think I'm strong enough now to do it."

Ororo looked at her for a moment as outside the wind picked up again, building almost to a full storm as she smiled happily. Flying was easily the greatest thing that her powers gave her the ability to do, and helping someone learn sounded like incredible fun. "I'll be happy to my dear."

* * *

Instead of going back to his room Harry made his way to Xavier's office, deciding it was time to eat some crow. He found the man up and about frowning down at some kind of missive from someone at his desk but he looked up as Harry knocked on his door. His eyes narrowed and he tensed himself a little as Harry came in, and his voice echoed that wariness when he spoke. "Yes, Mr. Potter, what can I do this morning?"

Harry walked forward until he stood right before the older man's desk then said abruptly "You were right about not killing the Juggernaut." When Charles looked at him in surprise he went on. "At the time you interrupted me the battle was over, it would not have been a death in combat, but cold blooded murder, and that isn't something I want to be a part of. I would have shed no tears if I had killed him during the battle but not like that. I'm also not used to trusting the government to really do its job, and I'm too used to… doing things on my own. I have to get used to the fact that I don't have to take that kind of thing on my own shoulders any more, and you were right about that issue."

As Charles relaxed and nodded in understanding Harry went on sharply. "But you're not right about the issue with Jean! That girl is getting stronger all the time with her training, and I am getting more and more concerned how the mental block you put in her head will affect her, I've seen such things before in the dimension of my birth and such blocks can have lasting consequences beyond what their creator intended. You've had a week and a bit, and your time is running out to be the one to tell her."

Charles frowned staring hard at the other young man. "Mr. Potter, not only am I a telepath, I have several Masters Degrees in psychology. Suffice it to say I knew what I was doing when I placed that mental block in place to keep the entity that I found in her mind from influencing her. I realize you might have met others who suffered from the magical equivalent, but the ones I put in place are different and I know they will prove sufficient. I resent the implication that I would not do what is right for one of my students, and your insistence that I tell her now is not going to change my mind."

"So you refuse to even consider that my knowledge of these things might be greater than yours?" Harry asked, his own face going hard. "That you might be wrong about how they're affecting her? How many of these things have you done to people anyway?" Charles opened his mouth to answer but Harry went on inexorably. "It's only because she trusts you that I gave you the three weeks in the first place, and I reiterate old man, you have only a week and a bit before I do it for you." Charles frowned but said nothing in response preferring to simply stare stonily at the young man.

Harry glared right back for a few minutes then turned and walked to the door where he stopped looking back. "Sometimes even the best of us can be wrong Charles, I hope you realize that, because sometime in the future more than Jean's mind might rest on your ability to listen to others. Remember a week and a bit." With that he left the office, leaving a frowning Charles staring out his window in thought behind him.

* * *

The next two days followed fell into a new pattern. Harry and Ororo would test his runic arrays in the morning and then she would work with Jean on flying, switching out target practice and strength building exercises to make time for it. She wasn't quite able to by the time the three invalids were up and about (Kurt was the only one still sore by that point) but she was getting there.

Harry spent his mornings with the three X-men still stuck in the hospital wing, and his afternoons working with his newest toy: Juggernaut's armor. It hadn't disappeared when his magical enhancement had died, and Jean and Scott had taken it off him after he shrank out of it. Harry had thought at first that they might have magical properties, something he could either study or drain, but in fact it didn't. Instead it was an entirely new kind of metal, stronger than anything Harry had ever seen. After assuring himself there was no actual magic in the armor he had Logan try to slice it with his adamantium claws, and they weren't even able to score it, and the sword of Gryffindor had no more luck when Harry tried it. Next he'd had Cyclops try to damage it, but even at full power the one armband he tried to destroy was still in one piece after a five minute blast, scorched a little but that was it.

This discovery had Harry practically salivating at what it could mean, but he would have to wait to figure it out. He needed to figure out some way to actually work with the unnamed metal (Harry name of Harrytanium for the metal had been roundly rejected by everyone who heard it), so he could figure out what the hell it was and recreate it. He had asked for and gotten permission to renovate one of the unused rooms on the teacher's floor to a lab, but he needed a lot of other things, most of which he would have to create himself, to start to really analyze the metal. The science room didn't have any scanners that could do the job, so Harry was going to have to build some, or buy some but he wanted to analyze it both magically and scientifically. After all, once he understood what it really was, he might be able to transfigure some more for the others. For now, since the metal had no anti-magical property like the shield of Cryttorak had his shape changing spells and shrinking spells were able to change the main body and bracers to fit Rogue, who had asked him to change its color to black (to match her green and black uniform). She refused to use the helmet though, which gave Harry a piece to experiment on.

This finished making Rogue into the tank of the team, and Harry had immediately given them all new tactical exercises to reflect the new team dynamic. Scott was alas the only one who worked through them all. Again say what you would about his empathy, charisma and lack thereof, he was a hard worker and took his assumed role as field leader seriously.

This wasn't the only thing Harry was working on though. In two days Harry had finished creating a rune to pull energy off the wearer's bio-energy. It would be enough to power a minimal crisis suit that the X-men could wear for now, though he wanted to figure out a way to do the same thing with technology as well. This stripped out suit provided a shield much like his own crisis suit though nowhere near as powerful and was heavily antiballistic, about three times as much as a Kevlar vest. It didn't have any of the offensive aids, it wouldn't help their speed or reaction time as those took far more energy, but it was much better than nothing. The more he got to know these kids the more he wanted to help them survive, regardless of his issues with Charles reminding him far too much of Dumb-as-a-door, and these suits would help them survive. Still he thought he could do better, and resolved to keep working on getting up to speed on the tech side of things so the next suit would be based off technology rather than magic.

"However," Harry muttered to himself later in the night he had finished the runic array to feed of bio-energy, "that isn't only one area I need to look into going forward." He looked up at Hedwig who was sitting on her perch looking at him intently. She actually didn't care for anything he was saying, and in fact the subject was a little beyond her, but she knew he just wanted someone to listen to his ideas, and she could provide that at least, especially when he stroked her feathers at the same time. "The question is, how can I make serious money? I don't mean thousands but billions at a minimum. Selling such crisis suits, once I figure out a way to create the same properties without magic but with science will hopefully take care of that, but to make them in numbers **to **sell I'll need even more money than my gold can give me, even if I figure out a way to use it all without, what was it, depreciating the value? I can't just dump two plus tons of gold without messing up the price, though I have no idea how much, and of course that doesn't even mention how no matter how I do it that much money will get me noticed sooner that I want to be. I want to be situated and have a firm position before I'm noticed by most of the powers that be. If I want to make an impact, the crisis suits need to be just the beginning. Next there are the seeds I've got for potion ingredients. Veritaserum and healing potions would be a major source of revenue, but I need land for planting and people to care for it, a lot of both if I'm going to even try to meet the demand for them. I need to do more research in the economy of this world, and the history of the past twenty years or so. What little I've done already was too narrow in scope, just looking for evidence of the magical world isn't important anymore."

Hedwig made a sort of hiss, which was the owl equivalent of an interrogative noise. "Yes, that means we'll need to head to Switzerland at some point." Despite the differences between this universe and his, Switzerland was still one of the best and certainly the easiest place to set up a bank account with as little banking history as he had. _And I'll need a bank account, _Harry thought a little grimly, _most of the things I'll be buying, they'll only take checks not straight up cash. I bet I could go to some third world country and hire workers and buy space, but then the money would mostly go to the local bully boys, so hell no. So I'll need to use that passport that Reed made me. I bet it'll pass muster. But getting there is going to be interesting. Hedwig can't go that far, and I can't teleport to a place I've never been, not with all my bits anyway. A picture just won't cut it over distances like that. I can always try…. Well, yeah that might work, I know it exists in this dimension, and I know it well enough to picture for a teleportation, but it might also kill me. Best to get a few of my other obligations done before I try that, that way if I do die I'll at least leave something good they'll remember me by. And maybe the flight array as well, just in case._

* * *

A few days after Juggernaut's assault, Steven Strange, Sorcerer Supreme returned from battling his most powerful foe yet, the Dread Lord Dormammu. He did not return alone, he in fact brought back a new girlfriend, whose name was Clea. Absolutely nothing about their courtship was normal or even easy to understand, as she was Dormammu's niece, former slave, and daughter of another of Strange's foes, the sorceress Umar. You would think he had beaten Dormammu to free her but you would be wrong.

He and Dormammu had been forced to work together to renew the barrier between their realms and the prison of the Mindless Ones, powerful yet utterly mindless and savage beasts whose origins were unknown, but who had threatened to utterly wipe out Dormammu's subjects. To say that the dread lord had been unhappy with having to rely on his foe for aid was an understatement, yet he had agreed to leave Clea and Earth alone. Steven knew that eventually the other dimensional being would find a loophole, but for now he was looking to some peace and quiet, some normality and maybe some nice, calm romance.

Wong greeted his master and his guest with a bow. "Welcome back master. I trust that your time abroad was interesting?" Wong was truly the world's reigning champion of understatement.

Steven sighed, taking in the soothing vista of his own magical laboratory. "Yes, quite interesting, a little too much so really. I am looking forward to some peace and quiet for a time."

Clea nodded. "I too would like to sample those concepts, they were sorely missing in the Dark dimension."

Wong nodded. "As you wish, I will screen all incoming calls and if anyone asks for you I will tell them you are still out. Madame Harkness however was in touch several days ago, asking to talk to you at your convenience, and a young magic user whose name I have never heard before, a Harry Potter stopped by and asked me to give you his regards and compliment you on the wards the household. If you wish to meet him he told me that he is staying upstate at the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters."

Steven paused in removing his cloak. _The ability to see wards like that is very rare_, he thought. _Perhaps I should go and meet this young man, it might be a very interesting conversation._ Clea moved past him, swishing her hips as only women could and he thought, _then again perhaps not._ "Interesting but not important right now, perhaps you could prepare us a meal Wong, and after that I think we have earned a few days to ourselves." Wong bowed in answer and Steven followed his new girlfriend out of his lab.

* * *

The next day the invalids were back to 100%, and Jean and Harry 'welcomed' them back by having a battle royal at breakfast.

Jean looked around from her place at the table, smiling a little at something Rogue and Kitty were saying, but most of her attention was on finding the rune that was holding her in place. I_'ve gained seven pounds since Harry moved in, no more! I swear to god I will win today! _ After about thirty minutes of searching every nook and cranny she could she gave up on looking and decided on threats. Everyone else save Kurt (who really was a bit of a bottomless stomach) had finished but they were all still there, waiting to see how Harry had trapped her this time, and they would not be disappointed. "Alright Potter, how the hell did you do it this time?! I've gained, well never mind how much I've gained, but I'm not giving up this time and nothing you can do is going to make me eat more than I already have!"

Harry looked up from a little homework assignment he'd given Kitty on runes, one eyebrow cocked in inquiry. "I'm sorry could you say that again?" Ororo groaned inwardly, yet part of her was wondering how this was going to turn out.

The others didn't have as good a grasp on Harry's mind yet, but Logan felt the hairs on the back of his head stand on end and he very carefully backed away from the table. Seeing this Charles made to speak up but Jean beat him to it. "I said nothing you can do is going to make me eat more!"

"That's what I thought you said." With a bare wave of a finger and an aimed silent **leviosa** a small donut hole from a plate on the table shot up and into Jean's astonished mouth. As she reflexively closed her mouth and began to chew, Harry smirked. "Challenge accepted. Now what else to feed you…."

Jean narrowed her eyes and when the next shot came she blocked it with her power. She retaliated by tossing a croissant at him. He blocked that and retaliated with a small piece of egg that she again blocked. Before anyone else could speak up suddenly they were flinging food at one another at an insane rate and everyone else ducked and ran from the sudden food fight.

Soon Jean upped the ante by blasting at Harry with her power and tossing plates at him. Harry responded by catching the plates and sending them through the door into the kitchen to land in the sink and tossing even more food her way. Some splattered Kurt, who was the only one who hadn't backed away from the table, and he retaliated by joining in. Soon all the kids, even Rogue and Scott had joined in and it took several mental shouts from Charles to get everyone to stop. _ENOUGH, stop it, this sort of display is childish in the extreme, cease and desist!_

The fight petered out, and everyone looked around a little sheepishly. Yet Harry merely waved his hand and used a massive **scourgify** to clean everything then he shrugged nonchalantly as the ruined food, strangely little from the amount that had been on the table (Kurt had eaten quite a lot before the battle really got going) formed in the air and shot off toward the trash, which Jean helpfully opened as the pile of food passed the kitchen doorway. "A bit of childishness is good for you from time to time Baldy. I think we all needed a bit of a release from the seriousness of the past few days anyway." _Besides, we're going to ramp up the seriousness in our training tonight, so it evens out._

Jean frowned a little at that but nodded too. _That was strangely exhilarating; who knew something so random could be so fun? And it was also tough keeping all those little things in the air at once. Still… _ "Alright, now that the food is ruined, how were you keeping me here this time?"

Harry looked at her, and for a moment there was something in his eyes she hadn't seen before, worry maybe but then it was gone and he grinned lopsidedly. "I didn't." Jean frowned and he laughed. "I didn't have time this morning, I had to spend some time getting a few things ready for later today, and I wanted to see how you'd react."

"You mean I could have left at any time!?" Jean exclaimed as the others began to chuckle a little, led by Ororo who had used a bit of wind power to keep all the thrown food away from her and Charles. And if she had used a bit to redirect some of the flying food toward Kurt or Evan no one would ever get the truth out of her… Just because she had to control her emotions all the time didn't mean that she couldn't have a little fun from time to time.

Harry nodded, then leaned forward seriously over the table towards Jean. "Yes you may have gained weight, but you haven't put on any pounds, you've simply gained muscles. Can you honestly say you are feeling any fatter or heavier than before? Because from where I'm sitting you're just as gorgeous now as you were when I first arrived." Ororo, who well knew that Jean's diet had been doing more damage than good, nodded firmly while the others simply nodded agreeing with him, though Scott frowned at the compliment paid to the redhead.

Jean looked away a very slight blush on her face. "I suppose not," she muttered. _Stupid emerald eyes and handsome face, god those eyes should be illegal and anyway I've got a boyfriend. Huh, haven't really thought of him much lately have I? Still obviously my work as an X-woman comes first. _"Alright, you win, I won't diet anymore."

Harry leaned back nodding. "Glad you finally see reason Red." He then turned to Kitty. "You ready to go apprentice?"

Kitty nodded eagerly and got up from where she had been using her phasing power to avoid the food being thrown around. "Sure teach, let's go!"

One of Charles' eyebrows quirked in inquiry, "What's this?"

"Curly-cat here came up with a new and interesting way to use a runic array to help her augment her power, as well as an idea to help all of you so I decided I might as well take her on formally as an apprentice in runes."

Charles turned to regard Kitty as the others looked at her in question save Evan and Kurt, who had heard of some of her ideas already. "Um, well, you know how we want to, like, um keep our identities secret? Well I thought about adding what is called a notice-me-not ward to just our faces and voices, so no one could recognize it." Charles blinked in surprise, but nodded firmly, that sounded like an excellent addition to their normal operation. "Like, I'll be working on studying runes from teach's books and figuring out the array for that and um, another idea for just me. We figured out a bit ago that I can do a lot of damage to something if I carry something else into it and push it along right?" Scott and the others winced having seen what she had left of the tree that one time. "But that takes a lot out of me for some reason, imparting momentum I mean. So I thought maybe if I started wearing a rune that could do the same thing." She wasn't certain yet how big it would be or wear to put it on her suit, but that would be later.

Harry grinned at the younger girl, amused by how enthused she was about learning the one aspect of magic she could use and manipulate. Well she could probably also be taught the local invocation stuff, but Harry would be damned before he relied on otherworldly beings for damn-all anything. _Honestly the more time I'm around her the more she reminds me of Hermione. A far more naïve and less worldly Hermione, like the younger sister she never had. _That had been one aspect of the death of the Grangers that bothered Harry almost as much as Hermione's death. Her mother had been two months pregnant when Snape used and then killed her and her unborn child. If that child had lived, he could easily imagine the girl turning out like Kitty. Her mind was very sharp beneath that valley girl exterior and helping her inquisitive nature along was immensely rewarding. "While she's doing that I'll be working on a few of my own projects and trying to see if I can figure out a way to augment the power of the suits further, draw more bio-energy out without draining the wearer."

"All those sound worthwhile exercises," Charles said smiling. "I wish you luck on your exploration."

Harry said standing up and waving Kitty out of her chair and before him as he walked out of the dining area. As he walked out toward the main hall he called over his shoulder. "Remember Charles, one and a half weeks now." Charles stiffened but the two of them were gone before he could respond. The others looked on worriedly, wondering what that was about.

* * *

Harry led Kitty not up to his room as she had expected but to a room closer to the stairs but on the same floor. Inside what should have been a generic bedroom had been changed so much as to be almost unrecognizable. All the furniture was gone, replaced by a large table in one corner, a large hanger in another holding the Juggernaut's helmet, and in the center dominating the room was a runic tablet, a kind of sand box where someone could practice writing out the runes and then erase them easily. Only if someone could get the rune perfect on the sand would they be allowed to put a rune on something more permanent. In front of it was a large comfy looking bean bag, the same color and make of another one placed in front of the desk. On the walls was a massive drawn out runic array making its way all the way around the room in a spiral. Kitty recognized a few of the runes, mostly Grecian runes for defense, but the purpose of the rest eluded her, though she suspected it was meant to protect the people inside and out from magical accidents.

Harry gestured Kitty into the bean bag in front of the practice tablet and stood on the other side looking at her. "Runes are dangerous, deadly and among the most basic of magical skills, some even say that they are the basis of all magic, that a long time ago they were the first magic discovered. Regardless, venturing into creating your own runic arrays is dangerous, demanding and alas often tedious work. Before this we were only dabbling, from now on the true learning begins. Are you ready?"

Kitty nodded, and realizing that this was a serious moment she sat up straight, her face firming. "Yes sir."

Harry looked deep into her eyes for a moment then nodded firmly. "Alright, we're going to start you off on drawing several simple runes. This process was supposed to take a year to learn, but I know how smart you are, so I expect you to get a few of these down everyday and be able to use them, well once I empower them anyway. Understand?" Kitty nodded firmly. "Good. Now, this rune is the Grecian rune for 'Light'….

* * *

At around six that night the teens were called as a group into the Danger Room. They all looked at one another, having worked with their instructors most of the day, and were now wondering what they were going to do now. Scott thought it would be a team exercise, and was wondering if they would be asked to take on a Danger Room created version of Juggernaut. He had seen that programmed into the computer so thought it a good bet. The others were simply leery of anything their slave drivers could come up with.

This concern ratcheted higher when they saw the Danger Room configured into a simple plain flat clearing, with Harry standing in the middle. He met each of their eyes as they came closer, and Jean once more saw a flicker of something like worry or concern in Harry's face as he looked at her before it was gone again. Once the group of them stood around him in a loose half circle he began. "Okay you lot, this exercise is simple, use your powers, use teamwork and planning and fight me. Nothing else. You have five minutes to plan and then I'm coming for you."

Scott bit back a groan but nodded, seeing the point. If they could fight Harry, who had so many different skills and abilities, that would build their experience against other mutants and power users better than anything else, which made it a good exercise to mix up with the ones pitting them against trained normal troops, so they could cover both bases. The others had various reactions.

Rogue looked a little interested in seeing how her new strength and durability would stand up against Harry.

Kitty too looked interested anxious to see how something she personally created, a few small stones etched with a few simple runes such as hold, slow and other things, would work. Harry had been correct, she had indeed been able to reproduce some of the simplest runes, and engrave them into stones the size of her palm, which was actually incredible work for only five hours, as she had joined the others in some of their exercises throughout the day. Harry had praised her for her progress but also warned her that it would only become harder as they went on, especially when they got to full runic arrays rather than one rune effects.

Jean seemed resigned, though inside she felt a bit of excitement at the idea.

Kurt and Evan though both groaned. "We're going to get our butts kicked man!"

That might be, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't try!" Scott said forcefully. "Now, let's put together a game plan!"

* * *

Rogue led off charging forward in an attempt to pin Harry in place, with Kurt and Evan spreading out quickly to either side in an attempt to keep him boxed in. Cyclops fired over Rogues shoulder at full blast hoping to cover their charge as Jean did the same. Kitty was nowhere to be seen, though given her power that really didn't mean much.

Harry charged forward, ducking under Scott's beams and surprisingly closing the range between his starting point and Rogue. The southern belle jerked to a halt but her gauntlet covered fist lashed out in a roundhouse. Instead of pasting the wizard however it passed right through him. "An Illusion, crap!"

Evan and Kurt turned, but Harry was already by Kurt, a spell lashing out. "**Rifela!"** The spell caught Kurt right in the chest throwing him back with a cry of pain as to the others it seemed as if a bullet had drilled right through him.

The Danger Room blandly announced. "Nightcrawler, mission kill."

The others all stopped and stared as Kurt fell to the ground, then was held there by the tractor beams that were everywhere in the Danger Room. "Wh-what the?" Scott said in shock then he shouted "There's something wrong with the program! Abort session!"

Harry didn't stop, and suddenly the ground came alive beneath them all, forming spires fists and feet that attacked all the others. "There's nothing wrong with the program, we upped the realism as much as we could. Treat this as real people or you're all going down, and this time I won't use any of my healing potions on you!"

Evan and the others gulped looking at Kurt's body on the ground, then their faces firmed and they began to fight back in earnest.

Evan started to throw spears at Harry with one hand while Rogue backed him up while across from them Scott fired while Jean performed defense, both her and Rogue ripping apart the fists and tendrils coming out of the ground.

Harry conjured up other beasts and lions, as well as one massive metal wall, which took the brunt of the combined attacks. Harry threw another spell into the air and suddenly it exploded like the sun, blinding all the X-men. They kept firing blindly, But Harry was already moving. His next shot changed the ground back to normal then made it so slippery that none of them were able to keep their feet. A overpowered "**Reducto**" shot out, smashing Rogue into the air and a **Leviosa** kept her there to be neatly struck in the neck by a cutting curse. She shouted in pain as the spell struck but swiftly the pain knocked her out as the Danger Room covered her with the image of what the cutting curse could have done, removing her head in a geyser of gore, as despite her new endurance she had not gained any magical resistance. "Rogue, mission kill."

Again the others stopped and stared, but this time Kitty showed up, using one of her stones with the runes for a holding field to try and take Harry out. She was barely an inch away from placing it on him when he teleported away, appearing right behind her. "Nice try Curly-cat! **Fulgur!**" The blast of lightening smashed out and impacted her and once again Kitty went down due to a lightning attack.

She hadn't felt much pain due to Harry barely powering the spell, but her friends all saw her smoking corpse. The hologram technology of the danger room was truly advanced. "Shadowcat, mission kill."

Evan snarled and pulled out two blades from his hands then charged forward, trying to catch Harry before he could teleport away, but a simple tripping spell at his feet followed by a bombarda took him out of the fight as he had forgotten to cover himself in his bone armor, a egregious mistake that cost him dearly. "Spyke, mission kill."

Scott, who had felt the impact of the blinding attack more than the others, finally got his eyesight back in time to see Jean charge forward in a corona of telekinetic power. Harry shot out a **protego maximo** which took and refracted Scott's eyebeams back to him, but he simply absorbed the power and kept firing his beam more powerfully than before. Harry ducked and then set several dozen conjured beasts at him to keep him busy before turning his full attention on Jean.

He dodged her initial blasts and retaliated with several cutting curses, which she blocked or deflected away. She moved her head just enough to dodge one and finally landed a blast on Harry that caught him in the chest, smashing the air out of him and throwing him away as a thin cut appeared on her cheek.

Scott killed the last of the beasts and tried to immediately follow up firing after him but Harry recovered quickly, shooting out a spell based off of Fred and George's Peruvian Darkness Powder, making a massive amount of black smoke that blinded Scott and Jean. Before Jean could figure out how to push the darkness away Harry closed the distance, and a conjured knife slammed into Scott's chest. "Cyclops, mission kill."

The darkness dissipated and Jean hammered Harry away across the room with another tk blast. Harry shook his head and got up none the worse for wear thanks to his reinforced **Magia Erebea**. Jean smirked a little, excitement rising in her for some reason as she wiped away the bit of blood on her cheek with her finger, completely forgetting for a moment the sight of her downed comrades. "You know, out of that little food fight this morning I don't think the two of us have ever really fought one another, not since you first showed up."

Harry smirked a little, forgetting the purpose of this exercise, his eyes beginning to crackle with magical power. "You know what Red, I think you're right."

"Nor is that going to happen now." Charles said firmly. Jean frowned at that but Charles went on, a little leery about letting the powerful telekinetic and magic user fight, afraid Harry might blurt something out in the heat of the moment. "This exercise was not an excuse for you to simply beat on one another like children, but for you and the others to actually learn something Jean."

The grass and the rest of the simulation faded and the 'dead' began to rise, freed from the hold of the system's numerous tractor beams. Rogue found herself lowered to the ground easily and she shook her head, touching her neck right above her armor where the cutting curse had impacted. She muttered to Kurt, who had regained his feet as Harry brought her down out of the side of her mouth, "That was really disturbing sugah."

"Truly," he muttered back. "Seeing a large hole straight through your own body was…. Brrr."

"That was the point of the exercise," Harry informed them. "You all need to know that there is no do over, there is no retry in a real battle. Those corpses could well have been real." A shudder went through all the X-men, both at that idea and at Harry's far away eyes. "I don't want any of you to feel the pain of losing a comrade, this is a serious business, and if you're too far gone, even if I'm right there my potions and spells won't help. I wanted you all to see how bad it could get." They all nodded seriously and he went on. "So I want you all to start thinking up new ways of using your powers, getting stronger and working as a team on your own time and this time every night we will have you all fight me or the simulations until you can win as a team. And every time I'm going to use different tactics and spells, to get you used to fighting different types of powers. And this program will be there every night to show you the price of failing. Understand?" They all looked at one another, but nodded. From then on the session became much more serious, but the X-men could feel themselves getting stronger.

That was how the next few days went before summer break ended. The X-men would work out with Logan (Scott, Evan and Kurt) Harry (Kitty) and Ororo (Rogue and Jean) during the day then would spend two hours with Harry. The first hour would be full on combat either against him or a large group of robots that would each use a random set of three of the spells he had so far shown. When they went down the same thing occurred to them that happened to the X-men when they did; the dead robot or team member was covered with a hologram showing their corpse. The second hour they would talk about ways to work better as a team, and Harry would help them correct the mistakes they made in the exercises.

Harry's project to figure out the properties of Juggernauts armor had hit a dead end, he just didn't have the sensors or magical items to analyze it. He had designed a few but for now he had to leave it. His other little projects though proceeded apace.

The strain between Harry and Charles became more and more pronounced every day that went by without Charles speaking to Jean. Nothing was said, but the tension would cause everyone else to leave swiftly whenever the two men were in the same room for long. The kids for the most part were still steering clear but Scott was beginning to push at Harry's authority during their sessions, feeling that whatever the issue was, the professor was in the right.

* * *

Jean took him to task about his attitude the Sunday evening before school was going to start as the two of them were walking up to their rooms. "Scott you need to stop pushing Harry, he's the one in charge of our training for a reason, and if he pushes back you won't like what happens."

Scott frowned at her. "You can't tell me you don't feel the tension between them? Potter's obviously done something, and the professor is just too decent to toss him out."

"If that was the case why in the world would he let him continue training us? And why do you think that it has to be something Harry's done? It could just be a difference of opinion about something, like how they argued about how to handle Juggernaut."

Scott frowned, that hadn't actually occurred to him but after a moment he dismissed it. "But still, the professor was right about that, and I think we should show solidarity and back him up. Harry's made no bones about how he will eventually move on after all."

"So what, does that change the fact he's helping us now? No it doesn't and whatever is going on between the professor and Harry is their own affair, not ours." She turned and kept walking toward the girl's wing, but a voice stopped her and she turned, seeing Ororo come out of the solarium, a book in one hand.

"That is a very mature and intelligent attitude to take Jean, and your argument was sound."

Jean shrugged. "It just makes sense to me that's all. I don't know why Scott is trying to make it into a big deal. I don't even know if he believes what he says of if he's just trying to strike back at Harry because he's sort of stolen Scott's thunder. Before Harry arrived Scott led us through a lot of our training exercises. He's also always very critical about Scott's leadership in the team drills." _Not without reason, _she had to admit. Scott wasn't very flexible, and he couldn't really handle the chaos of a battlefield that was the natural occurrence when fighting someone like Harry, or dozens of enemies at once. _More he clearly plays favorites, always keeping me at the back regardless of the situation. As if I can't tell why he's doing it, I suppose it could be called sweet but I just find it really annoying and rather presumptuous. It's kind of insulting really, as I know I've become one of the teams three big hitters at this point. _

"Well I am glad of it nonetheless." Ororo looked at the younger girl, seeing her stare off into the distance with an introspective look on her face. "Is there something else wrong?" Jean sighed, only confirming Ororo's guess. "Would you like to come up to my room and talk about it?" Jean looked at the older woman for a moment then nodded her head.

The two went up to her room and entered Jean looking around with interest. None of the younger set had ever been in Ms. Munroe's room (in fact no one else had been in her room ever, not even Charles or her nephew) and she was very interested to see what it looked like. The room was dominated by a large circular futon instead of the normal bed, draped with several furs. Along one wall was a bookshelf filled with books, mostly language books and classics, made of dark wood next to a dresser of the same wood while on the other was a large painting of what Jean supposed was the Serengeti, and on either side was a picture of her family. Next to a picture of her and Evan were three diplomas, all bachelors of languages. The back of the room was a wall to wall window, wide open to let in as much of the air as possible, and a small tree sat in a pot right next to the door. On the floor was a very fine afghan rug. All in all the room gave the impression of both refined intelligence and a certain wild barbarity. Jean found this room told her more about Ms. Munroe than she had learned in the last year living with her, and she was a little humbled at being welcomed into it.

She sat on the floor and was surprised that the older woman sat on the floor as well instead of on the bed. This made them much more like equals though, something that flattered Jean quite a bit. After all, Ms. Munroe routinely beat both her and Rogue in their spars and she was a teacher and older to boot. "Now, why don't you tell me what's wrong. Unless you would like some tea, in which case I'd have to go over to my arboretum to retrieve my tea service." Ororo smirked a little. "I thought that it wouldn't be nearly as good as Harry's."

Jean shook her head in response, running one hand through her red hair as she thought of how to begin. "Have you ever, have you ever felt as if you were being pulled this way and that, stretched and yet at the same time as if you're being forced into a mold, something you are rapidly growing out of?"

Ororo smiled a little. "I wouldn't put it like that but I know what you mean. You have your duties as an X-man, your schoolwork, and your boyfriend all making demands on your time. And you are also growing

as a person, but aren't certain where that growth is taking you, correct?" Jean gaped at her astonished and the black woman laughed for a moment, though a sudden peal of thunder made her

stop and recompose herself. Jean frowned, feeling sorry for the other woman, hoping the Harry was making progress in his ward for her. "Suffice to say I have felt like that a time or two. I felt pulled between a desire to leave and find myself, to see the world beyond the tribes that worshipped me, and stay and continue to be seen as their weather goddess. And when my powers first awakened, let us say that I broke the mold I was in then. Being a thief and low on the totem pole of a gang and able to manipulate the weather just did not go together. And that doesn't consider the mold I was forced into when gaining full control of my powers or when I was at college. The question is why are you feeling this way now? I realize you've gotten far stronger in the use of your powers, but that can't be the only reason can it?"

Jean shook her head. "No, though my new control of my telepathy is part of it. I always had to be the best for my parents, but lately I've been wondering if that was ever for me as well, or simply what others expected of me. My being an X-man is important to me, but at the same time I, I don't want to be important just as Marvel Girl, but as Jean Grey, and I, I don't know if the others can see it. I just seem to be growing, not just in powers but in other ways, and I'm no longer certain what I want out of life, and I don't like the fact that there's this assumption that we'll always be here, that being an X-man will be** the **main thing in my life. It's important but…." She realized she was rambling but that was sort of the point in and of itself really. She had been making headway in organizing her mind via occlumency, but while that had helped her keep other peoples thoughts out, it hadn't helped in controlling her own and she had found herself thinking about the future more and more, and wondering where the hell she was going to be when high school ended, and hating the fact that Scott, Charles and everyone else just assumed that they would all still be here, unchanging.

This was in fact a normal occurrence when organizing your mind via occlumency: you suddenly were able to think clearer, to notice things you have never noticed before, and in a way you come to understand yourself to a far better degree. Hermione found out she had been slowly moving away from her parents in their second year, and moved swiftly to stop this, and that a few of her friends in Hufflepuff and Gryffindor had simply been using her for her smarts rather than true friends. Harry too had discovered something about himself, that being he hadn't yet moved past his abandonment issues and other problems caused by his childhood with the Dursleys. Of course in this case it wasn't just Jean herself that was being effected, but she didn't know that, nor did anyone else.

Ororo looked at her for a moment, smiling internally. _Ah, one of the little ones wants to spread her wings in more ways than one, lovely. _She was always in favor of growth. "And going back to school tomorrow, with all of your obligations there, it brought it all to a head."

Jean sighed, leaning against the remarkably soft side of the bed behind her. "Yes. I'm part of the cheerleader squad, and I find the idea starting up practice again with them unappealing now." _ For more than one reason _she thought grimly, remembering some of the thoughts, emotions and angst of the other girls. Even her best friend had some thoughts that disturbed her. "And after that I'll have my place as captain of the soccer team starting in a few weeks after the football season ends, and then there's my boyfriend." _Who I haven't thought of even calling despite being back in town this entire week_, she thought rather morosely. It wasn't that Duncan was a bad person, he was just a typical male teen, with all that entailed, and she had begun to see his bad points far more, unable to hide from her own memories of his bullying attitude, his lack of empathy (something he shared with Scott she knew, and briefly thought of pointing that out to them both to see their reaction to sharing something) and his bigoted ways against anyone different from the norm. _If I'm nothing else, I am not normal, nor would I want to be. I want to be __**extraordinary**__! And I have no idea how he would react to that. _"That's part of why I want so desperately to learn to fly under my own power, because it gives me a semblance of freedom and I can imagine travelling the world seeing new and interesting things." She suddenly shot a grin at the older woman, "Use some of those language lessons you've hammered into us."

"You could always quit both teams" Ororo suggested. "And perhaps we could figure out a trip over the summer, just to get away, see a bit of the world. That would be most fun and a learning experience for all of you I think."

Jean smiled at the thought, snuggling happily against the side of Ororo's bed. _I have got to get something like this for my room! _ "That would be lovely, though just talking about it has helped a little, thanks for listening Ms. Munroe."

Ororo smiled. "I think you should start to call me Ororo outside of lessons. And that is what I am here for my dear, if you ever want to talk you know where to find me, just remember to knock hmm?" Jean laughed and the conversation turned to other things, and the two talked together for several more hours.

* * *

The next day was Monday, and the kids went back to school, some with irritation, some with anticipation and others with eagerness. Evan was looking forward to using his new mad skills to hammer any of the brotherhood that tried to start anything, even Scott was feeling a little grimly anticipatory at the idea. Kitty was happy to be seeing her non-X-ish friends. Rogue and Jean were both irritated for different reasons. Jean was leery about being around her boyfriend and other friends, wondering how she would react to them given her new thoughts and feelings about them. Rogue was worried about controlling her strength. It hadn't gone down at all, and judging from the tests Charles ran, it seemed to be permanent, something that made her happy, but also made her worried about controlling it.

The breakfast meal was dominated by Kurt, Evan, Kitty and Scott as usual, while Jean made small talk with Ororo and Charles and Logan talked about some kind of weapons package Logan wanted to add to the X-jet.

No one noticed that Harry hadn't sat down to eat with them until he suddenly popped up right behind Ororo's seat. "Hey Ororo, I have a present for you."

Ororo turned slightly then stilled as she felt his hands on her shoulders, a gentle touch that made her turn her head back forward. Harry began to gather and move her hair to the side, baring her neck a gesture that, while not sexual was certainly sensual and sent a shiver of pleasure through her. She closed her eyes into mere slits, trying to control herself and not effect the weather around her. It had been so long since she had allowed herself the touch of another person… She was brought back to the here and now when Jean gasped from across from her and she felt a slight weight settle just below her neck. She opened and looked down to see a golden necklace composed of small quarter inch gold links (made by melting galleons together) and centered on a large diamond (taken from some of his family's jewelry he had brought with him). It seemed to sparkle with an inner light and she turned to stare at Harry, her eyes filled with hope. "Ha-Harry, is this what I think it is?"

Harry's answering grin threatened to split his face, reminding a few of the kids of the Cheshire cat from Alice in Wonderland. "Yep, I finished it last night. The trouble was to make the runes small enough to all fit on one item of jewelry, and to only block your subconscious connection not your powers entirely. That was a bit of an issue, and why I had you testing so many arrays the past few days. Still the final product is mmh…" He was interrupted by the exuberant African woman jumping to her feet and kissing him fiercely on the lips. As the others looked on with various emotions ranging from happiness, shock and amusement to a gathering rage the kiss deepened for several moments, Harry's arms going around her as her own went around him.

It was about to involve tongues when Evan finally lost his temper and jumped to his feet, shooting a few bone knives out at Harry. "God-damnit stop necking with my aunt you perverted bastard!"

Harry broke the lip lock and simply waved his hand a **'Protego' **knocking the knives away easily. Ororo however simply giggled and ran outside to see a clear day, no winds, no reaction at all from her emotional storm and she began to laugh aloud and shot into the air, a fierce joy filling her at finally being able to use her powers without worrying about even a momentary loss of control could do. She swooped into her room and changed into her X-man uniform. She grabbed a pair of headphones and some music then shot back out of the room, intending to enjoy her day to the fullest.

Harry smirked a little as laughter began around the table. "Huh I guess she likes it." He nodded to Rogue and she looked at him with hope in her eyes. "Your ward is next, though I won't say how long it will take, it'll be a little more difficult alas." Rogue nodded and the breakfast broke up as the students went their separate ways to prepare for school.

* * *

Lance and the others came to school for once eagerly, anxious to start something with the X-men to see how their week of training would stack up. "Now remember, don't start anything right away, see if we can isolate the Boy Scout or one of the others first, take them out piecemeal." Fred and Todd both nodded but Pietro merely rolled his eyes, yet Lance knew the punk wouldn't do anything to mess this up. Their little 'talk' about Pietro running off and not coming back to help against Juggernaut had gone as well as it could, and he was sufficiently cowed by the other three to go along with things. Lance knew it wouldn't last; Pietro had an ego way bigger than his powers could account for, but Lance would deal with that later if he had to.

Their chance came almost immediately and Lance sent off Todd and Fred to prepare. Evan and Kurt had as normal skateboarded to school and Lance smirked as they saw them coming in late past the gate. A little rumble of his power threw them both off their boards for a second and then Pietro zoomed in grabbing them both and dragging them to a distant part of the parking area with no witnesses.

Surprisingly the two X-men didn't fight this, simply going along with things while internally laughing aloud in glee. Fred and Todd both smirked at the x-dorks when Pietro let them go. "You know, we've been training for the past week, and we were hoping to see how well we do with a bit of a fight. You don't mind do you?" As soon as Lance finished saying this the Blob swung a huge ham sized hand forward at Evan then he howled in surprised pain as Evan went flying away, only to flip and land on his feet. His body was covered in armor right below his clothing, bulking him up a bit and his face, where Fred's punch had been aimed, was covered in small spikes for a moment before they receded back under his skin, which healed as they sank back in.

Kurt suddenly bamfed, appearing right behind the speedster, who turned as fast as his heightened nervous system could allow. His punch though was caught and they bamfed away, appearing in the air where Pietro's speed was negated. A few hard punches to the other German's stomach sent him down to the ground gasping for air, out of the fight for now. Kurt bamfed again, appearing next to Evan with the normal smell of brimstone and smoke. "Oh no mine fruend, we haf no problem at all vith that." With that both X-men charged forward.

Lance was able to hold his own against Evan, keeping his distance with judicious use of his power, and when Kurt tried to join in he found Lance had studied enough martial arts to counter him. Fred and Toad worked well together, but by the time the bell rang all three of the brotherhood were sweaty and sore while the two X-men both seemed they could go on for hours more. By mutual agreement the fight ended when the bell rang, leaving one side exhilarated and the other frustrated and a little scared. Lance thought grimly, _their teamwork was the thing that killed us, not just their powers but their hand to hand skills. If the whole team was here we would have been schooled. Mystique is not going to like this. _He was of course proven correct in this assumption later that day.

* * *

As it was a school night the team had only a few hours of practice but that was enough to tell them that Ororo with her emotions unbound was a very different person. For one thing, she was far more vocal, she was demanding, she laughed a lot and she cajoled them along with jokes at times and abrasive sarcastic comments at others.

Scott in particular received quite a few of these when she ordered him to attack her with only his knife work. Her comments on his skill, as she stood above him with his knife in one hand and twirling her own in the other, were utterly scathing. Scott determined to take that training more seriously from now on, if only in an attempt to not receive any more such comments. He still didn't see the point to them though. Evan too was brought to task on not taking the hand to hand lessons seriously enough and was heard to mutter he wanted the old Auntie O back.

Jean however enjoyed seeing this aspect of the older woman's personality, as did the others, especially after she pranked Kurt in return for a paint balloon aimed at her back during a break in their training. Kitty received the new nickname Kitten, which she liked as it was something her mother called her and Ororo like this seemed to be a great big sister type, and Kurt enjoyed her newfound sense of humor and Rogue the fact she played music in the background of their training sessions.

The next morning Ororo smirked as she remembered that, then her lips widened into a smile as Harry walked in, a smile on his own face. "I see that you're enjoying being able to show your emotions, I'm glad."

"As am I," Ororo purred, standing up and stalking, that was the only word for it, toward him. She greatly enjoyed his gulp and she watched with eagerness as his eyes lit up with a matching desire. She molded her body against his still clothed form, kissing him gently on the lips then nibbling her way to his ear as he did the same. Her skin felt like the finest satin under his touch, and she tasted like cardamom and some other spice he couldn't place. "So" she whispered in his ear, barely controlling a moan as Harry nipped at her neck, "When are you going to take me out on a date?" With that she pulled back and moved away to water her plants, keeping one eye on Harry to see his reaction to her teasing.

She was surprised when he simply shook his head and laughed, showing not a single sign of irritation at her teasing, nor any uncontrollable desire, oh there was desire there, quite a lot of it but it went away as he shook his head, now able to, not ignore nor overlook, just not react to her naked form and she put another large check mark next to his name. Harry seemed, much like her, to not just want a flash in the pants relationship, and was willing to play the game. "Well, I'm going to be leaving in about an hour or so on a trip that may or may not take a few days, so how about this weekend?"

She nodded, wondering what he was up to but supposing it had something to do with his ongoing research projects. She knew his inability to analyze what he still insisted on calling Harrytanium was bothering the heck out of him. "That will be fine. I trust you will be able to find a suitable restaurant on your own? You haven't exactly gone anywhere lately after all. And what do you want our Kitten to be working on while you're gone?" During the school week Logan and Ororo took over all of the student's exercises, as Harry's were bruising in the extreme, something the kids wouldn't be able to hide at school simply because of how they would move.

"I'll talk to Kitty before I go, she won't be working on anything new without me here, runes and magic can be very dangerous to tinker with even if she doesn't have a magical core of her own, hence why my runic workroom is warded as much as I can make it." _Well without using one of my hearth stones anyway._ "She'll be working on practicing drawing the runes she already knows smaller than she can now. That should keep her busy, and not tempt her to mess with some of the runes I've already powered without me here." Ororo nodded, and the conversation changed to what kind of food she liked when eating out, what she would like and hadn't had the opportunity to try and other things.

* * *

Kitty was one of the first to come down to breakfast and was surprised to see Logan there. Logan had not had a good night, haunted by a nightmare, possibly a memory. He was suspended in some kind of amniotic fluid in a tank, then he escapes, is attacked and runs away through the snow, in pain, angry and confused.

Kitty sat down across form him, her lips gripping a pen as she began to write a letter to her parents as she did every few weeks. She looked up as Logan rustled his newspaper, and he glanced at her. "Am I reading to loud or something Kitty?"

Kitty shook her head. "Nah, I just am enjoying the quiet, its so rare around here." Even as she said that the boys came in, talking excitedly to one another about some TV show they had all watched last night and she shook her head. "See what I mean?"

Rogue came in and sat down next to her, handing the younger girl a set of her big headphones. Kitty took them gratefully while Jean and Ororo came in talking about something about flying. They sat down and continued their discussion, with Ororo using her hands to illustrate some point to the redhead, who was nodding her head in understanding.

Harry walked in at that point not partaking of the meal. Teleportation over any kind of distance had a lot of the same issues apparition had, and using either magical method of transportation with food in your stomach was a very bad idea. "I'm going on a little trip" he announced, and everyone at the table looked at him. "I might be gone as long as two days, I don't know just yet."

Jean looked up in surprise, wondering what their most chaotic and unpredictable teacher was going to be doing. "Where are you going Harry?"

"Europe eventually, well, that is if the first part of this little trip doesn't kill me. That's a definite possibility really, should be fun anyway." With that he gathered his magical power, and focused all his thoughts on the image in his brain even as the others all gaped at him or choked on their food in surprise at his statement. He ignored their surprise and waved a hand jauntily. "Wish me luck."

Before any of them could do more than gape he disappeared, making a faint popping noise. A moment later, Hedwig who had perched on the back of Ororo's chair to look at her over her shoulder at the manga she was reading (yes Ah My Goddess was silly, but it was also funny and Ororo liked it), squawked angrily and flopped forward, barely catching herself before she landed on the table, precking irritably.

Ororo frowned. "I take it he ran into a bit of trouble?" Hedwig nodded her head fiercely, not stopping her irritated diatribe. Despite not being in any kind of human language the meaning of her precks came through quite clearly. Charles was almost tempted to say something about watching her language, but realized that in her present mood the owl might well rip his ear off. "Well in that case could you peck him a few times for me as well? He needs to get used to the fact that there are people who care for him now, and he can't just go and risk himself like this." Hedwig recovered herself, precked and nodded firm agreement with that statement then launched herself into the air. A moment later she too disappeared from sight.

Jean chuckled a little, saying "Never a dull moment around here, especially with Potter here." Everyone around the table nodded mute agreement.

* * *

The trick to teleportation was that you could only do it to a place you could picture accurately in your mind. If you couldn't do that you wouldn't be able to forge the connection between where you were to where you wanted to go. You could still try to push through of course that was what caused splinching more often than not. Harry had never been to any place in Europe, and he had only been to a few places in London, but he didn't know any of them well enough to teleport to, and when he tried to picture them, it didn't work. There was one place however, that when he tried to create a connection he succeeded. It was the most surprising of all, a place he tried to connect to only on a whim, with no real hope that it would be there, not after Madame Harkness had told him there was no Wizarding World, that magic users had never come together and retreated away from the non magical societies.

Yet Hogwarts existed here as it did in his own dimension. Hogwarts, a huge, massive castle still existed here, yet he found no mention of it on the internet, which made him believe that somehow it was still hidden to non-magical senses. So he tried to picture himself teleporting to land right before the main entrance, the place he could picture the most comprehensively yet still outside so the least likely to run into wards.

This hadn't worked. Instead of just the building being warded, a large area around it was too, and Harry bounced off the outer anti-apparition ward like a tennis ball off a wall, only with the ball in this case being alive to feel the pain and humiliation. "FUuuccckkkk!" He shouted, his mind and stomach assaulting him too much to let him react as he bounced off the wards and then off the water of the lake several times, before his momentum finally gave out about a mile from the shore. He groaned a little while beginning to tread water, thankful yet again that he routinely wore his crisis suit underneath his regular clothing. With a freezing spell he froze a large area of the water's surface, enough so he could pull himself up onto it and sort of lay there like a landed fish as he recovered, his stomach feeling like someone had tried to use it as a battlefield, his mind fogged with pain and his body a little sore, though thankfully not so much. He'd felt far worse, but his stomach and head were new and he had to rest there for a few minutes as the pain in both subsided.

Hedwig appeared overhead, her entire body screaming righteous indignation. After circling him to make certain her Harry was alright she landed on the ice next to his head, her claws sinking in, then she began to chew his ear off. And with an owl that was not a figure of speech.

For a few moments Harry just lay there, letting his body get back to normal. After he felt well enough to stand up he did so, pushing to his knees and after renewing his freezing spell he wobbled over to the edge of the piece of ice, leaned over and fed the fish for a bit. Hedwig turned away fastidiously as her Harry lost a few of his last meals, but hopped onto his shoulder and continued her assault on his ear as he stood up on still wobbly legs to look around.

Harry gave her a weak smile. "I know Hedwig, I was an idiot, I just thought, well I didn't really think this through huh? Guess my family's Gryffindor heritage overwhelmed my Ravenclaw common sense huh?" Hedwig gave the owl equivalent of a harrumph but stopped chewing on his ear after a final far more gentle nibble.

Despite what he said Harry had expected to run into some issues boldly trying to teleport to Hogwarts, but had thought that he would appear nearby, simply deposited elsewhere safely with nothing wrong save a upset stomach. Instead he had bounced off full power wards and nearly hit the other side of the lake from the castle. With a sigh he turned his attention to the distant castle, a smell repelling charm sending the ice over the lake. When he got closer both he stared as tears came to his eyes, remembering how he had first seen the castle and all of the things that had happened here.

The medieval castle sat there, unchanged since some distant past when it was first built. The towers, the turrets, the little overlook which hid the first year's entrance, it was all there. He remembered entering that way with Hermione, Padma and the others, and smiled a little sadly at the fact he would never see any of his old friends among the living ever again. He felt a niggling little tickle at the edge of his senses, and knew he was somehow under an anti-muggle ward of some kind. He then used his mage sight spell and his eyes widened in shock.

The wards of Hogwarts were the wonders of the world for hundreds of years, yet by the time Harry started school there, they were a bare shadow of what they could, indeed what they should have been. They were powered by three things; one, the students ambient magic, keeping magical accidents to a minimum. The second power source was the teachers, who were supposed to give up a portion of their own magic to power them on a daily basis after they signed their contracts. Dumbledore as the headmaster should have not only given the largest portion of his own power to these wards, tying him into them, but he should have enforced this for all the teachers he hired in his tenure. He didn't do either, and thus by the time Harry arrived the wards were only sustained by the two teachers who he hadn't hired, Flitwick and McGonagall, which was why there were so many dangers able to get onto the grounds and fights inside the castle between students with the teacher none-the-wiser. The third, and the one which gave the wards most of their power was the fact the castle sat on an intersection of two ley lines, but this option was only to be enacted during wartime on order of the headmaster. Never, not once, not even after McGonagall became headmistress, had Harry ever seen the wards of Hogwarts at anywhere near their full potential.

The wards before him were not only at their full potential, they were at what his world would have called a wartime footing, taking power from the ley lines below the castle. They were so powerful, so numerous and so well layered it was incredible. Harry counted at least fifteen anti-muggle wards, thirty full powered defense wards layered into the ground and the castle, and five anti-apparition wards. The others looked to be a mix of security, (wards to lock access) warning (wards to inform the headmaster or whoever of what was going on under them) and specific wards that seemed to block or dissipate specific spells. Other ones seemed to be things like anti-animal wards, though there were far more of them than he would have expected, and a few whose purpose he couldn't figure out, though they looked like they were versions of an unplottable, possibly much more powerful and tweaked to only block out non-magicals.

"Wow, just wow. That lot would take me weeks to decipher." He was tempted to do just that, but he had other obligations right now, whatever mystery Hogwarts hid would wait for now. He supposed he could just blast his way in, as strong as he was now, but only if he wanted to sink this part of Scotland into the sea, not something he was interested in doing whatever secrets the castles hid in its halls. _Still I will be back_, he vowed. Something about the castles was whispering to him that whatever was inside was important, that it held secrets he had to decipher, and that somehow the castle was waiting for him in some way. Yet it would have to wait a little longer.

He looked at Hedwig who smoothed out her feathers and jumped off his shoulder into the air, her destination Bern, Switzerland. From here it was in her flight range, and she would be back soon given her ability to 'go between' as she did. Harry still wasn't certain how the hell she did her little jumps, but simply put it down to how magnificent she was, which she of course agreed with.

Harry continued to make his way to shore (which seemed to be empty of squid alas, Chulhey had een a good friend, well he had after Luna introduced it to them all, and a major help in the second task of the Tournament in his fourth year), feeling more and more of the wards hit him and thankfully find him acceptable. The anti-apparition ward hadn't of course but most of these wards were developed to keep the castle hidden, not take out someone who already knew of its existence.

As he stepped onto the shore he remembered how he first became friends with Daphne and Tracy on the shore of the lake. It was at the beginning of their second year, and he and the twins had been spending time together, trying to come to an agreement on a group prank against the teachers when they heard the sound a commotion by the lake. It turned out to be a group of upper year Slytherins fighting two third year girls, whose bodies, much like Susan Bones in Hufflepuff, had already begun to mature. A group of six sixth years and two seventh years had followed them out to the lake and ambushed them there. Harry and the twins had leapt into the fight and with surprise on their side routed the lot of them. Unfortunately later on it was their word against the older Slytherins and as usual Dumbledore refused to hear anything against Snape or the little bigots.

Harry and his New Marauders would run into all eight of that group later, but they would be wearing black robes and masks then, and wouldn't be walking away from that second meeting.

The aftermath was that Daphne and Tracey practically moved into Ravenclaw tower, and Daphne and Hermione conspired to create a few spells to help protect the girls in the Slytherin quarters from their enemies. Hermione showed a certain level of viciousness in her spell creation that made every boy in their group flinch and cross their legs, but it cemented a friendship with the two pureblood girls and started a rivalry between her and Daphne that would last until Hermione was killed by Snape and Draco.

He spent his time waiting for his familiar walking around the grounds for two hours lost in his memories, but Hedwig's return dragged him back into the here and now, and soon, after viewing her memories of their destination, the two were off.

* * *

At around two in the afternoon local time a man walked into a bank in Bern the capital of Switzerland. He wore a tailored Armani suit in dark gray colors, a very nice white shirt underneath, but no tie. He was carrying a large backpack, but as the metal detectors at the door didn't ring in alarm, the security guards stationed on either side of the entrance didn't think it dangerous. They watched him, of course, and when he walked up to one of them it was a surprise to hear him speak in fluent Swiss. "Excuse me," he said, "could you direct me to where I need to go to open up a new account?" the guard thus addressed did so, still wondering what was in the bag but being too professional to ask.

Harry smirked a little. When he had mentioned his translation spells to Ororo, she had gotten very, very irritated. Even with her normal control before he gave her the necklace he created a storm had begun to develop outside the house, complete with lightning, thunder and rain. She thought that it was a cheat. That you learned more about a language and its people while actually learning the language than you ever could just by being given knowledge of the language in a few seconds of spell work, especially since that knowledge faded over time. Harry had agreed to only use it when he wasn't around her, but also refused to join the language classes as he had far more important things to do. Ororo hadn't liked that, but had acquiesced.

Harry was shown into a rather small office where a man in his 30s stood up and welcomed him with a bland noncommittal smile on his face. "I understand you wish to open up a new account with us, Mr…?"

Harry nodded. "Harry Potter, yes as I've recently moved out on my own I really do need my own account. I have made some recent discoveries and I hope to start up my own business soon. I have the capital, some of the items that I'm looking to patent have done very well, but it's all been sort of under the table."

The man looked a little dubious, at that, but nodded. "Might we have your IDs please?" Harry handed over the ID the Fantastic Four gave him, and as he had suspected it passed muster quite easily.

While they were waiting for the ID to come back the man talked about the minimal initial deposit requirement, as well as what kind of interest he could expect. Harry replied that he would be depositing quite a lot more than that, but he would allow the interest rate to remain at their set level, until he was proven to be a good investment.

The man frowned a little at that, wondering what the younger man in front of him was going to be doing, but shrugged as the ID came back clean. "So how much are you looking to entrust to us today, Mr. Potter?"

Perry reached into the bag and began to pull out large wads of cash, all of which of course was in the US dollar, but the presentation was all he could hope for. "About 2 and 3/4 of a million dollars US actually."

The man gaped at him and said softly "I think I'm going to have to go get my advisor." Harry frowned a little, but nodded anyway. He could have simply waved his hand and gotten the man to agree to create a bank account for him no questions asked but had decided against it. He didn't want anyone to accuse him of using his magic to influence other people like that when he eventually went public.

The discussion with the supervisor lasted about 45 minutes, but he was satisfied by Harry's tale of continually selling off items of gold that he had discovered in his grandfather's house, as well as selling certain scientific items. Mind you, these items, a wrist mounted taser and a hand sized wide area dispersal pepper-spray were ideas that he was going to run with eventually, but he didn't think they would be very big money makers in comparison to some of his other ideas. At the moment though they did well enough to convince the man that the money was real and that Harry was on the up and up. Of course, this being Switzerland they didn't really care what he was doing in America, so long as he didn't do it here. Once they were convinced of that fact it went much smoother.

The upshot was that an hour after walking into the bank Harry walked out with a brand-new bank account, as well as checks. He had asked the man if the checks would be usable immediately, and after another 5 minutes of wrangling, the man agreed and activated his account as fast as he could. He did this happily since Harry informed him that the money he had already deposited had only been a down payment, and that Harry expected to see a massive return in a few days. He refused to divulge where that return would be coming from, only that it wouldn't have anything illegal about it. _ After all, there's no law that says I can't take gold from one dimension into another is there?_ Harry smirked to himself.

His agenda today was to buy the various crystals and other items he would need to create a magical analysis to figure out what Juggernaut's armor was composed of, as well as certain scientific devices for the same purpose. The devices he would have to order specially, they weren't exactly going to be sold in stores, and much the same thing would have to happen for the crystals, because they had to be of perfect quality on the molecular level, but certain other items he could buy. "However," he said to himself as Hedwig zoomed down out of nowhere to perch on his shoulder. "I think I deserve a bit of a present, what do you think Hedwig?"

Hedwig seemed to think about this, then nodded affirmatively, and Harry made his way over to a map of the city at a bus stop, and then made his way over to a very specific automobile dealership. He had seen this car online while living with the Fantastic Four, and had immediately fallen in love with it. It wasn't exactly the most utilitarian car, but then again, he didn't care about that. All he wanted was something to have fun with that was fast, and this car would fit the bill nicely. After that he decided to get himself some tea and searched for a good café.

* * *

Emma Frost sat alone at a table in a little café off the main street of Bern, tapping the fingers of one hand rhythmically on the table as she read over a few notes from her bank manager. She sat alone because she wanted to, a young woman of her looks and grace would never want for companionship, but at the moment she wanted to be alone. She scowled irritably as she went over her bank notes, looking for some way out of the predicament she found herself in.

Emma was born into the Frost household, its third eldest child, and was expected to do her part to enrich the family. Frost pharmaceuticals, Frost perfume, Frost Industries, Frost import/export, and Frost Telecommunications were all big business, not quite as big as the biggest like Stark Enterprises or some of the other really big names, but easily multi-billionaires. They had become so by making few mistakes and taking care of any enemies with ruthless dispatch. Not that any of that could ever be traced back to them of course. And she was now expected to take her part in the family business, and that was surprisingly as its heir.

Her older brother, their firstborn child, was a lush. He spent his time and money on sex, alcohol and drugs, and anyway was gay, something that was almost as bad these days as being a known mutant. Her older sister was equally unsuitable, she was cruel and sadistic, and was horrible at hiding it. Her father approved of such things in moderation of course, but Adrienne refused to even think that the opinions of anyone outside the family should matter at all, and routinely abused the servants in various ways.

So Emma had been chosen to succeed her father as head of the business. The only problem was, she didn't want to be. She wanted to make a wrong way in the world, succeed on her own merits. However, the family had refused to allow that, and Emma was here to see if she could in some way get enough of her money out of her bank account to start up somewhere on her own. Unfortunately, her parents had tangled up her bank account with numerous regulations, rules and expectations, and she was left with no way to get out any significant amount without their say-so. Well her father's say-so, her mother kept herself drugged to the gills so she didn't have to deal with her families issues.

Emma scowled angrily to herself, confident that her powers would keep anyone from actually noticing. It was those powers, the mutant power of telepathy that had awoken during her puberty that allowed her to sit alone in the very crowded café. _Despite the fact that I would miss the higher things in life, I'm almost tempted to run off right now. I could convince someone to buy my car, and that would give me enough money to start with obviously. But no, I bet my father would send people after me, especially given certain agreements he's made concerning me!_ If it was only the fact that she was being forced to take over the family businesses in the future she would've easily born that up. The businesses weren't anything she was really interested in, but that could've changed over time. No it was the other aspect of being head of Frost industries that bothered the hell out of her.

Her father was part of a very old, very wealthy and very influential group called the Hellfire Club that had been around since the 1700s. This group specialized in backroom dealings, insider trading, and working together to profit from the rest of the world. She had no issues with any of that, what she did have an issue with was the fact that it was heavily gender biased and male-dominated. Despite her high birth, despite the money and influence she as the head of Frost Corp. would bring to the group, she as a woman was going to be subservient to a man, one of the so called Kings, which would control her as his Queen. The man in question was named Sebastian Shaw, a friend of her father who had been eyeing her for several years now. The idea of what that man would do once he had actual control over her did not bear thinking about. And unfortunately, he had such good telepathic blocks, developed despite not being a telepath himself that he would know immediately if she tried to influence him, with consequences she did not want to consider.

It wasn't as if she was entirely unused to the attentions of man of course, she had had several boyfriends despite her older sister's machinations. With her looks how could it be anything else? And in fact she had a very brief and extremely pleasant affair with one of her teachers, there was something to be said about experience over youthful ineptitude. No, it was the fact that she was still very technically a virgin. Much like the Middle East still did, and like the Hellfire Club had done since its inception, a woman was supposed to come to it unsullied and her father had basically told her from the very beginning of puberty that she was allowed to fool around in any way shape or form but **that**. If she did that, not only would she be thrown out of the house with nothing to her name, but he would see to it that she could never work at any level at any business in the world again save as a slut on the street.

Emma had long thought of getting out of it somehow, but had hoped to be able to find a better way forward. It hadn't worked._ Calm down Emma,_ she said coldly to herself, _so you can't get out of it, figure out some angle, you want to influence him, fear a way to do it, or just take the plunge and run off now. _The odds of her successfully running off were slim, but possibly better than being controlled by that Neanderthal Shaw.

Her thoughts were interrupted however, as someone sat across from her, something that should've been impossible given the fact that she was projecting a TK field that would tell anyone with a brain that this table was not in fact here. Yet someone still had sat down with her.

She looked up and was caught by the most magnificent emerald eyes she had ever seen, snapping with barely concealed humor and hidden power. The face around those eyes was handsome, dominated by an expressive smile, white teeth, unkempt black hair and a strange fading scar on his forehead. "Sorry about this," he said as he sat down a cup of tea and a large scone, "but if the choice is between sitting with you or sitting with the fat Yank, I'll choose the beautiful blonde every time."

Emma looked around beyond startled and then noticed that he was in fact telling the truth. The only free space in the café was next to a very fat American who was talking loudly into some kind of cell phone. _Probably a tourist, _she thought scornfully then turned back to her new companion, looking at him in a strange kind of wonder. Pausing momentarily to think about it, she then sent a small fragment of her telepathic power forward to probe his mind wanting to make sure that this wasn't some stooge of her father or someone Shaw sent to look over his 'investment'.

Harry frowned a little as he felt a little nudge on the side of his mental invisibility cloak. It didn't seem to have any malice behind it or anything, and he realized almost immediately that it was coming from the young woman in front of him. _Still,_ he thought to himself _if I looked like her I would be a little worried about a complete stranger sitting with me too_. He decided to have a bit of fun with her, and very stealthily stuck his mental avatar's hand out from under the invisibility cloak protecting his mind. That hand held a sign saying 'No Trespassing violators will be pranked mercilessly', then a little animation started on it, featuring a Bugs Bunny like rabbit and a very large mallet coming down on its head several times.

On the outside edge Emma had continued to sip her tea as she sent her probe forward, only to nearly spit it out in surprised laughter at the response she eventually got, though the fact she didn't see anything else of the man's mind was fascinating. Setting down her tea she picked up her napkin and dabbed at her mouth for a moment before speaking. "All right, that was interesting."

Harry grinned at her. "Well, that'll teach you not to probe strange men's minds. I know why you did it, after all a young woman as good looking as you probably does need to be more careful than normal people, but it's still rather rude."

Emma leaned back, taking in more of the man's appearance. The suit was nice, well fitted and very good quality even if it only looked like an Armani, as a Frost of course she could spot a fake suit a mile away, but this one seemed decent enough. The boy, no young **man** in front of her had some bank information in front of him as well as a map showing the roads down to Italy. He didn't look up from looking at the map intently almost as if he wasn't paying her any attention now that she had stopped trying to probe his own mind.

_That didn't feel like any kind of telepathic block, nor did it feel like a natural one. I wonder what it was. _Emma smiled this kind of mystery was precisely what she needed to take her mind off her current troubles. "So what was that little trick just now?"

Harry looked up from the map he was perusing. He had decided that he really wanted to try out his new car before going back to the X-Men mansion. And driving in the US was problematic with the stupidly low speed limits. "Just a little trick," he said blandly, not about to open up to a young woman he had only just met, no matter how good looking she was, not right away at least. "By the way, what is it with mutants and being beautiful? Is that part of the whole mutant thing, I mean really is it genetics?"

Emma smirked a little at the rather blatant attempt to change the subject, the compliment was flattering but oddly informative at the same time, though the man might not have meant it to be. "And have you met many of us mutants?" She had only met one, maybe two other mutants, though she had suspicions about several others, including Sebastian Shaw and her own sisters.

"Several" he said, not going into any detail, "and I've yet to meet a female one that wasn't gorgeous." Inside however, he was wondering how this woman had fallen through the cracks and been missed by Xavier. _It would seem Cerebro isn't as accurate or all knowing as he wants me to believe. Or could it be that he doesn't know either? The first would be irritating, but the second would be much more worrisome, especially if it isn't missing because of faults in its detection net, but because of someone else being able to block it._ Regardless, this young woman had easily the most defined telepathic probe he had ever felt bar Xavier's own. Jean's in comparison was blunt with not a lot of force behind it and even the legelimencers of his former dimension like Bumblemore didn't compare. That spoke of a lot of drive, training and ability.

Emma frowned a little when the man went back to perusing his map. She was unused to being dismissed so easily, and wondered what other tricks the young man had that gave him such an air of competence and concealed power. "Come now" she said, leaning forward. "Can't you tell me a little bit about yourself? It's not often that I meet someone who can simply ignore my mental suggestions and probes."

Harry looked up and took in the view she was very consciously giving him then concentrated solely on her face, allowing her to see his appreciation there for a moment before saying blandly. "Now why would I tell a complete stranger anything about me?"

Emma cocked her head to one side letting her hair fall coquettishly down one shoulder. "My name is Emma Frost, there, we're not strangers anymore."

Harry laughed a little, then shook his head, as he leaned back in his chair. "The innocent seductress act doesn't really work for you, you know. My name's Harry Potter how do you do?"

Emma leaned back met again, smiling a little now that they had broken the ice. "I know, but sometimes it's the only card available. I might as well get used to it after all," she said a little tartly, and then blinked, not having wanted to say that aloud.

Harry frowned. The young woman didn't strike him as someone coming from a bad family or anything like that, but the frustration, anger and the little bit of fear in her words struck a chord in him. "So," he said thoughtfully "you've run into someone else who is immune to your mental powers, and who wants something you don't want to give?"

Emma sighed, she hadn't meant to let that out, after all she was interested in getting information from the young man not giving out her own. "It's a lot more complicated than that. Suffice to say however that I was here searching for a way out of it, and my father has rather neatly sewn them all up before I got here. I've been debating with myself whether or not to simply run off, unfortunately I doubt it would work for very long. Frost Corp has a very long arm."

Harry frowned thoughtfully recognizing the name now. Frost Corp was a big name in perfumes, pharmaceuticals, and scientific instruments and had holdings in some other industries. They had literally thousands of patents to the company's name, including some of the scanners he wanted to buy. "Frost huh, I recognize the name. I don't suppose you'd be willing to barter a deal for some of your scientific scanners."

"Satisfy my curiosity and maybe" she said bluntly. She now knew with the kind of assurance that came from long trusting her instincts that the young man before her held some kind of power that could probably help her. All that remained was to convince him to do so.

Harry smirked a little, while looking at the time. It was now three in the afternoon, and that left them with four hours of sunlight, which was perfect for what he wanted to actually be doing with his day. Talking to Emma was interesting, and certainly kept him on his toes, but he wanted to be doing something a little more physical and fun. "Now if you actually had a good car, we could make a little game of this. After all I just bought a car, and the dealer said it was pretty fast. I like going fast but I'd like some time to get to know my car a little, see if he was telling the truth."

"I have a Ferrari 458" she said laughing a little. "I could probably beat any dinky little car you have in any kind of race you could ask."

"Wow, a Ferrari 458, that's incredible. Precisely the kind of rich little girl car I thought you'd have." As Emma's eyebrows rose in amusement Harry smirked a little "all right, let's have a little race and put your money where your mouth is. The winner gets to ask the loser for three favors or the answer to three questions, no arguments, no prevaricating, okay?"

Emma grinned, looking far less haughty and far more impish. If there was one thing she loved to do more than make money it was race. "Fine by me, I'm finished with my tea, so shall we start now?" Harry smirked finished his own tea, stood up and led the way outside. In the little parking area right by the café Emma stopped and stared.

The car Harry was moving towards was emerald green like his eyes only a little deeper shade, it was obviously built for speed with very fine lines, little side mirrors, a very big engine at the back and it was absolutely gorgeous. "What," she said coldly "is that?" She had the feeling she had just been duped and she didn't like it.

"That," Harry said, grinning a little, "is a Pagani Huayra."

"A Huayra, as in one of the newest, fastest cars in the world," she said softly, knowing now she had been tricked.

"Yep, isn't she pretty?"

Emma growled but went over to her own Ferrari 458. Suddenly her certain victory wasn't looking so certain.

* * *

On a nearby rooftop a man wearing a skull mask, blue spandex and an orange cloak was watching this with amusement. On his back he had a quiver of arrows, on one arm he wore a shield and at his waist rested a sword and a short bow. He spoke into a walkie-talkie saying "Keep an eye on them for now; we'll have a much easier time taking her outside the city somewhere. Wait until they're far enough away and as alone as possible before we move in, understand?"

He received three affirmatives, and jumped off the building toward his own car. Of course, given how fast the two punk's cars were, he and his associates would have a devil of a time keeping up with them, but that didn't matter. They would have to stop eventually, and the tracker he had put on Emma Frost's car earlier that day would enable them to track them down easily.

Taskmaster was much more of an assassin and trainer than a kidnapper, but the money he would get from some of the Frost family's enemies would let him retire from active duty and open up his training school for criminals that he had been planning for a few years now. Much easier, safer and more profitable than actually being out in the field. What his three associates would do with their power was something he didn't care about.

* * *

The two young people stopped at a gas station right outside of Bern off one of the countries highways to fill their tanks and mark out their route. Emma, who of course had been around here before marked down a route to take down into Italy the halfway point of which would be the city of Devos. "The hotels in Devos are magnificent, and have very secure parking areas which would be good for us in particular. After that the road from Devos down into Italy this way is one of the best in the world if we end up running into too much traffic between here and Devos to make it really a race." Emma was of course covering her bases here. While she might not like being a Frost, she still was one, and just like the rest of them she hated to lose.

Harry nodded. "I shall be guided in this by you fairy lady, though the traffic should be a part of any race, after all that will make it more exciting. Are you ready to go?"

Emma nodded looking a little amused by the older boys bravado. "And what about any policemen that see us?"

Harry smirked a little. "I don't feel like dealing with them, so I think we'll just ignore them. I assume you can do your trick from the café for yourself, and I have my own equivalent so…" Emma laughed and nodded, and the two got back into their supercars. As soon as they pulled out onto the main road the race began

Almost immediately it was clear the Huayra had a far more powerful engine. The 458 had a V8, the Huayra had a v-12 turbo, and Harry began to pull ahead, but Emma had tweaked her own car by adding turbo and other things well enough that she was able to keep within shouting distance. She also made up some time on the curves and in traffic, though not nearly as much as she had expected. "I really need to learn the specs of that car, it's amazing!" She laughed, and gunned her Ferrari further, the air coming in from her open windows swirling her blond hair around her head.

Harry too was having a lot of fun. The two were dodging in and out of traffic, pulling further and further away from the city, and they hadn't even really been able to open up their engines due to the traffic. As soon as they hit a good speed, normally around 70 mph, they would hit traffic and had to slow down again, and even as he realized this it happened yet again, allowing Emma to stay on his tail.

In an attempt to put some distance between them he changed from one lane to another to avoid a truck, then swiftly ducked back in to his original lane to avoid another one, and sped on. "This is almost as fun as playing Quidditch, the only thing missing is people trying to bludgeon me to death!"

Emma followed him swiftly, showing her normal lack of concern for her own safety when driving her car. Her parents always castigated her severely about it, not because of concern for her own wellbeing but because of the bad PR their daughter being in car accident would give their family. But she'd never been in an accident, and she wasn't going to be in one now.

This was a trick she had learned early on with her telepathic powers, the ability to pinpoint minds around her, and predict what the owner of those minds would be doing in the near future. This allowed her to prepare for the actions of the other drivers around her, which in turn allowed her to react to them far better than anyone else. More she could send out a sort of radar pulse to read the territory around them and predict changes in the road, turns and any problems ahead of her. It had never failed her yet, and it was the only reason she was able to keep up with Harry, who didn't have that ability.

She swerved around one truck dodged into the other lane, then back in front of the truck and then did the same thing again to several cars that were going far too slowly in her opinion, than was right behind Harry again.

The further and further they got away from the city, the less traffic there was, and the two supercars were finally able to really open up about an hour into the race. Emma pulled even with Harry at that point, but that was the last time they were neck and neck. Harry's car was simply that much better than hers, and his reflexes were utterly insane, almost able to match the knowledge her powers could give her.

Still, she was having a hell of a lot of fun, and she hoped that that she could probably talk him into helping her anyway. The more she thought about it the more she became certain that the young man could help her, that his aura of confidence and power was the real thing. Sebastian Shaw gave off an aura like that, but in his case it was more an aura of cruel malice and ambition rather than simple power.

The race continued for several hours, but they were obliged to slow down as dusk came and they began to see signs for the city of Devos. Harry signaled they should pull into an abandoned viewing area that overlooked a magnificent view, though the edge of the area was a simple cliff with no protective fence. Emma responded by following him in.

Harry smiled as Emma got out of her car, flashing quite a bit of leg to a very appreciative audience. She smirked a little as she noticed his gaze, and then smirked even wider when he concentrated on her face as she came up to them. She could count on the digits of one hand the number of boys his age or younger that could look at her and not just see her as a sex object and it was very refreshing.

"I believe I won that," Harry said, raising one eyebrow in question.

Emma nodded. " So you did. That car is truly fantastic, and your own driving wasn't that horrible either."

"Yes well, I did learn from a former supercar test driver."

"Oh, who, was that?" she said.

"Johnny storm actually." Harry answered flippantly, though he was looking around for some reason, his instincts were telling him something was wrong.

_And that_ she thought gleefully,_ clinches it. He radiates power like a beacon, has money to burn that's obvious, knows Johnny Storm and probably the rest of the fantastic four! Even if he can't help me with my present situation, he would be a fantastic connection later on._

Their conversation was interrupted when a large truck pulled in ahead of them on the side of the road. Four men jumped out of the back, all dressed in various uniforms. One was dressed in a decent looking blue suit with green pants, though the suit looked a little too tight on him, and his tie looked like something from the late Victorian era. Another was dressed in blue spandex, a orange cape and death's mask. The third was a taller, massively ripped man with blue hair and a slight tan that wore form fitting red spandex. And the last was a man twirling a large boomerang around in his hand and wore purple spandex.

Harry just shook his head. "What is with people in this dimension and wearing spandex? Honestly, it's almost obscene."

Emma heard this dimension bit there, but decided not to comment on it just yet. "I have no idea." She said blandly, "though if I wore it. I certainly would look better in it than these four don't you think?"

"But of course my dear" Harry replied, bowing grandly.

The four had by this time surrounded the two racers, and the one with the death mask on his face spoke up. "Emma Frost, you're coming with us. There's someone out there who wants quite a bit of money from your father and you are going to be the key to that. You kid, can get out of here."

"Hey now wait, a minute said the man wearing red spandex in Italian accented English, "that car of his is fantastic, let's take that with us too. And don't you worry honey, we'll take goooood care of you." He leered at Emma who merely rolled her eyes.

The man in the suit nodded, looking her over and smiling lasciviously. "Indeed, after all, our employer wanted to cause the Frost family pain. Kidnapping is only one way to do that, humiliation is another, isn't that right Taskmaster?"

"Hey," the guy in purple said sharply, his voice carrying a distinct Aussie twang, "I didn't sign up for any shit like that, let's keep this clean."

"Boomerang's right," said taskmaster sharply. Keep on task Unus, Swan, we're not here just to get your jollies off Let's keep this professional and not make this any more difficult than it already has to be. Now get out of here punk, before we change our mind and just dump you body somewhere."

Emma frowned and looked at Harry, who raised an eyebrow at her, his whole body tense like a spring. She nodded, indicating she could take care of herself and shook his head and suddenly was holding a sword. "Yeah, that's not happening" he said calmly. "In fact I don't think that anything about this is going to be easy for you lot." He cast a speed enhancing spell on his legs and shot forward, already conjuring up lions and other beasts out of the thin air to attack the Italian Unus while he concentrated on the one he saw as most dangerous, the one who seemed to be in charge and who was even now firing arrows from a short bow at him, the one the others identified as Taskmaster.

The one carrying a boomerang shouted "what the hell!" as Harry closed in, but Emma didn't waste time looking astonished (though inside she certainly was, that was two different powers Harry just showed) she simply lashed out with her power. A bolt of telepathic force centered around the idea, the concept and mental signal for PAIN hammered into the l minds of two of the attackers. Boomerang went down screaming in pain, out of the fight for now.

Swan however simply shrugged it off and turned to look her with a sneer. "So you are a mutant as well." He said a little coldly as he brought out his sword. "I dislike violence against young ladies of your stature, but if you do not wish to come with this peacefully. Then I have no choice. After all it is not as if I would not make our liaison as pleasurable as possible for you if you do not resist."

Emma smirked a little as the man's own power tried to get past her defenses, but it was easily beaten back and she lashed out again with her telepathic power. This time her assault was not a brute force bludgeon but a subtle illusion, making it seem as if Harry had summoned more beasts to fight him, hundreds of such images assaulted Swann, who suddenly was no longer sneering. He began to stab out wildly with his sword at a few of the beasts as his power made some of her other illusions disappear. Emma simply laughed, slowly leading him away from where they had parked and towards the edge of the cliff the rest stop overlooked.

Behind him Taskmaster and Unus engaged Harry, the Italian's fists doing numbers on Harry's conjured animals, while he laughed madly at the beasts attempts to bother him, yet his power, the ability to create a impenetrable shield around himself, protected him from all attacks. Taskmaster too dealt with them swiftly, far more swiftly than Harry had expected, but he was fine with that. After all, they had only been designed to test his enemy's abilities. _ So the one has a shield of some kind, but obviously it doesn't keep out air or else he wouldn't be able to breathe. _Harry used one of his prank spells to conjure up a cloud that smelled like a full power gas attack and sent it towards the would-be rapist, and soon enough he was down and gasping for air as his eyes began to tear up.

That left Harry to engage Taskmaster, who at this point, had finished off Harry's conjured beasts and closed the range striking out at Harry with his sword. Harry deflected the first blow and the second then barely dodged the third. _This guy is good _he thought, _but if he thinks I've run out of tricks yet he's sadly mistaken. _A brief wave of his hand brought up several hundred hands reaching out from the ground, but Taskmaster simply moved through them exceptionally quick, slicing them to pieces and blasting away at Harry with a gun he had pulled from his back, out of arrows for his short bow having spent them on some of the more dangerous conjured beasts. A quick shield spell protected Harry, but Taskmaster was once again able to close the distance and moved around the visible shield to run Harry through. Or so he thought.

The illusion that Harry had created at the same time he created his shield dissipated as Taskmaster's sword pierced it and the man's sword arm was still outstretched when the real sword of Gryffindor sliced in from behind the image. Even taken by surprise the Taskmaster was able to dodge the blow, only taking a very minor nick on the outside of his sword arm.

Taskmaster adjusted himself and came forward again, this time a knife in one hand and a sword his sword in the other. Harry however simply backed away and then turned away completely to face the Unus who had recovered by this point. Taskmaster was just about to step forward enough to run him through from behind, wondering why the hell he had turned away but not looking a gift horse in the mouth when his knees gave out. A sudden wracking pain jolted through him, and he sagged. "P-poison," he said in shock, "there, there was poison on that blade?"

Harry looked over his shoulder as he sent out yet another air based spell at the man with the shield, but he seems to have learned his lesson and now the shield was blocking that is well. It didn't block the blinding '**Lumos' **spell that went off right in front of his face however, and the man once again fell back screaming and clawing at his eyes in agony. "Basilisk venom," he said softly to Taskmaster. "I nearly died from it when I was twelve-ish, and the only cure was the tears of a Phoenix, I truly doubt you'll find one of those around here." Eight days later remembering this line would cause Harry to bang his head against a wall as hard as he possibly could.

"This blade might not be the most dangerous blade in the world, but it sure as hell is up there, you underestimated it, and you underestimated me. When you see Death, give her my regards." Harry had no patience whatsoever for kidnappers, rapists or murderers, especially murderers/kidnappers for higher. He walked away as Taskmaster tried to get to his feet, only to fall again, his eyes dimming over as his body shuddered and quaked around him.

The first one that Emma had taken out was almost back to his feet, when the ground underneath him rose up and ensnared him like a living wave of earth. After a second he gasped as his clothing constricted him, and then changed color into a paisley kind of thing. Harry walked up then slapping him on the shoulder. "The only reason you're still alive," He said cheerfully "is because you said you wouldn't go along with the rape idea. I suggest you get a new line of work, because I am very much a strike one sort of person. The next time I see you, you will be out." And with that Harry used '**Stupefy'** on the man, knocking him unconscious.

It would take a bit of work later, but he would eventually erase all knowledge of Harry's abilities from the man's mind, or at least, Emma would once the battle ended, and Harry would install a small rune based on intent on the man's back, that would change his hair color and make the man's smell of shit every time he thought of something violent, draining the man's own bio-energy to power it. Humiliation after all, was oftentimes much better than any other form of punishment. This way the man couldn't even think of violence without being humiliated, much better than simply putting him in prison and expecting him to mend his ways on his own.

Unus was back by this point, but his eyes didn't seem to be working properly. Harry wondered what would happen if he cast his own '**Protego** 'on the man to cover his own shield, and did so. He walked away, and the man fell to his knees, gasping for air. He tried to break out but Harry kept the shield moving around him until he fell to his knees, lack of air having finally taken his toll. Harry made certain the man was down by using another overpowered '**Lumos**' and the man didn't even twitch. Harry conjured up several more shields to surround the man, then pushed on the outermost with a **'Repulso'**, sending the man's entombed corpse over the edge of the cliff to get rid of the body. He would later do the same to Taskmaster after ransacking his pockets and transfiguring him into a rock. Dead beings after all were much easier to transfigure.

By this time Emma had handled the so called Black Swan. His blade was passing through the air at imaginary enemies and she had easily tied him up in knots so much that he didn't even realize she had also cast a subtle illusion on his senses that had to deal with the ground, extending the edge of the cliff just slightly. A moment later he stepped forward to put his back against the edge and fell as the ground which to his mind looked so solid wasn't in fact there at all. He tried to scramble at the edge but a sudden telepathic blast of pain rocked into his shocked mind, and his defenses crumbled. He screamed aloud reflectively clutching his head and then fell to his death screaming.

She turned to see Harry coming up and looked behind him to see one enemy seemingly having been mostly eaten by the ground wearing the most ugly outfit she had ever seen, one other dead and the other had already past her on his way off the cliff. She nodded cordially to him. "Now, where were we," she said calmly.

Harry smirked a little at how composed she was despite the violence of the last fifteen minutes or so, and decided to see what her reaction would be to a bit of the truth. "I was going to ask you some business related questions, and hopefully make a deal with you for a few of Frost Industries patented scanning equipment. More I have a lot of gold that I need to get out into the market and I need to know the best way to do that without bringing any attention to my doings."

Emma perked up visibly at the word gold. "Tell me more."

Harry did so, estimating how much gold he had, and her smile, which had still been a little cold after watching the man called Swan fall to his death turned very bright and eager. "You know Harry" she said looping one of his arms with her own as they made their way back to their cars, "this could be the start of a lovely friendship."

Harry smiled a little and said "you know what, I think so too."

* * *

**End chapter**

And there we have it. Emma frost has been introduced, a lot of other developments to make the X-men better, more tension between Charles and Harry, more romance between Harry and Ororo and some more development for Jean. Oh and three minor villains killed, well before they could become stronger. Before you ask, no Harry did not take them at all seriously, though he was very angry at the comments from Swan and Unus. And yes Harry is a little controlled by his hormones, but since he and Ororo haven't actually become a couple just yet, flirting with Emma a little bit is alright in his book.

Now my little announcement/rant/plea:

This is undoubtedly the most ambitious and difficult story I have ever tried. The size of the marvel universe is incredible! All the characters, all the villains and the arcs, it's just insane! And the mutants and how damn many of them switch sides! Oh my god! Juggernaut, Magneto, Mystique, Emma Frost, Havoc, Quicksilver, Jean Grey, the list goes on and on! I also don't have access to a lot of the source material. I have some of the collectors books for the Amazing X-men, and some of the arcs (X-tinction Agenda and a few others), so I know I will make mistakes.

If anyone knows a site that has a full list of the comic books that I can search easily or something like that I will happily name you here for your aid. The sites I have found haven't been very helpful to create a timeline or give me much of a background to the characters. If anyone considers him or herself an expert on the marvel universe **please **pm me, I have some specific questions about the universe and various characters going forward.

Then of course so many of the characters have had different writers that gave them their own twists. Don't get me started on the whole Cassandra Nova thing or that time period of the X-men. Whoever that drawer was should have been shot, he made them all fucking ugly! How the hell can you make the X-hotties ugly like that?

Speaking of drawing, any of my readers are also artists, could I ask you try to create a poster for this story? If anyone is interested, pm me and we can talk about some ideas.

Also, if anyone could recommend some good, lengthy marvel/x-men/harry/Harry Potter crossover I would appreciate it, I'd like to see how other people have played certain characters. I've read Arcane Supremacy and Rise of Arcane and a few others but I would love to hear I've missed a few good ones.

As always read and review


	7. A Third Path to the Future has Opened

I don't own Harry Potter or the marvel universe. One is too cliché even for me and the other too damn depressing at times.

Some reviews I would like to mention:

_Mist shadow:_ the FF have been operating for a few years, but they don't have as many connections as you seem to think. I do have the idea of another person to act as a full time trainer for Harry's group (once he puts it together), but he won't appear for a while. And yes Harry still has mental issues, in point of fact he would fit in far better with Gryffindor now than he ever did in his old dimension.

_Bub23453: _the wards and why no one knows about Hogwarts (and no one does) will be explained in other chapters, though there is so much going on right now that Harry might not get free to go and study them for a while.

_Plums:_ YOU ARE THE MAN! I love both wizard Runemaster and Last Second Savior, simply fantastic stories, and you updated both! Awesome. In terms of Harry's actions, he wanted to try out his car, and what better way than in a race? He also didn't need a lot to beat these guys, none of them were a threat to him. Hogwarts and everything about that will be explained in the future in bits and pieces. I will not officially add more girls for a while, but Emma will show up soon. Backups will come, but I am wondering if I should have them be part of the romance or just backups.

Cj-cold: love the review, hope you enjoy this chapter too.

I am debating how to emphasis spells, i have to different methods in this chapter, tell me what you think. And now on with the show.

* * *

**Chapter 7 A Third Path to the Future has Opened**

Kitty grimaced as she continued to run beside Kurt, thankful that Logan had forced them to do endurance training for so long, as without it Logan and Sabertooth would have caught up with them by now. _Ironic that._ The fact that her day had gone south so quickly was even more ironic. _When I thought to myself I'd go to another country if it gave me a quiet place to work on my letter I really didn't mean it, and it's not like we've had much quiet since we got here. Stupid, stupid brainwashing, stupid, stupid Wolverine and his trying to handle his problems alone, and stupid me for thinking the x-Jet was a good place to get some peace and quiet!_

Next to her Kurt bamfed again, then not even a second later was back, the smell of brimstone from his first teleportation reinforced by his return trip. "There's a clearing about five more minutes run in front of us, how much time do you vant me to buy you?"

Kitty let her legs carry her forward as her mind worked over what she would need. Wolverine was resistant to magic, so she'd need a lot more than a single stone with a simple 'hold' rune, like Teach used on his breakfast war with Jean. And then there was the other controlled idiot, but in his case she could be a lot…. firmer. She wasn't looking forward to it, but if anyone deserved what she might be forced to do, then Sabertooth did. "Can you give me about ten minutes or so?"

Kurt looked back over his blue furred shoulder to the two wild men that were chasing after them so single-mindedly. "Jah, I can hold them off for that long, but not longer. Hurry as you can ya?"

Kitty nodded firmly. "Don't worry I'll be as fast as I can." With that Kurt turned back and Kitty raced on to the clearing.

Kurt bamfed immediately behind Sabertooth his fist slamming into the man's ear hole rattling his head and then teleporting away to stand in front of both of the mind-controlled wild men. "Logan I know you can't hear me but this vill be painful to one of us that much I can promise you."

Wolverine didn't even so match as twitch, he simply charged at Nightcrawler snarling, his claws out to slay as Sabertooth joined him. "Don't tell me I didn't warn you." Kurt said, then began to dodge and bamf around, keeping them both busy. The easiest way to do this was to get them to hit one another as for a few seconds they would ignore him and move to attack one another before turning back to him, and Kurt quickly became an expert at it. He also made heavy use of his prehensile tail to trip both of them, and the martial arts Logan had taught him. Still it was only the fact both were moving rather predictably despite their speed and skill that allowed him to survive.

Even then he took a few slashes along his suit and body, a few of which would require stitches later. He only hit back when he could target their heads, the better to rattle their brains, but he wished he had brought one of the tazer wristbands Harry had designed, though of course to do that they would have to have already been built. He was quickly growing tired, only his teleportation ability keeping him alive. _I might not last the full ten minutes at this rate!_

Thankfully, a little less than seven minutes after he turned at bay a voice shouted out from behind him. "I'm ready Nightcrawler, let 'em go!"

With a groan of relief Kurt bamfed away to join Kitty in the clearing, leaving the two berserkers to chase after him. Kitty grabbed his arm as he staggered bleeding from several cuts along his arms and sides. "You did good Kurt" she said as she pulled him up and propped him against a nearby tree. "Now leave it to me."

Kitty had worked faster and better than she had thought she could, but it had still taken all the stones from the pouch she always carried with her just in case (a gift from Harry to his apprentice, the stones grew from tiny pebbles to palm sized stones when you took them out of the pouch, though Kitty had put the runes on them all) to make the binding array on the ground of the clearing as well as the little surprise she had put into it and even then it was in a very small area. She just hoped it would be enough because she couldn't recharge the things, only use them. this was a one shot deal, if it didn't work they'd have to retreat and maybe figure out how to fly the jet back to get some more help before the doctor operation the mind control chips decided to pull up shop, a forlorn hope at best.

Logan burst out of the trees to charge straight at Kitty who was kneeling now in the center of the clearing. Logan, like the beast the chip in his head had made him, charged forward to be caught in the binding array. Ropes of magical power rose up around him holding him in place. However, thanks to his skeleton being laced with adamantium Logan had a very high magical resistance and the binding could only hold him for a few seconds. But it was enough to hold him in place long enough for Kitty to shout "Activate!", while touching a rune on the ground with her hand. The second half of her trap sprang, the dozen shock runes, a specialty of the Potter family that he had passed on to her as his apprentice and because they were actually simple runes to learn and etch into stone, activated all at once. The shock, being magical in nature, had a bit more oomph to it than normal electricity, and the chip in his head that was controlling him didn't have any of Logan's immunity to magic, and the thing shorted out as he was knocked out for a few minutes.

Sabertooth came out of the woods into the clearing as Logan fell to his knees. Sabertooth snorted seeing his weaker friend down. "Not bad frail, but if you think that'll stop me you don't know me too well! And I might not be able to hurt you, but blue boy, him I can hurt!" Unlike Logan, who had fought with all his considerable willpower to not be controlled by the control chip Victor had given in easily, thus retained most of his personality.

He stalked forward and Kitty frowned. "Stay back Sabertooth, I've got other tricks to deal with you, that's your only warning." Sabertooth scoffed and ran forward aiming for Kurt. Kitty scowled, but ran forward to meet him, phasing out so that her body phased through his, but instead of just going through, she left behind one of her pebbles, one that didn't have a rune on it, and she grimaced with effort as she imparted some impetus to it as it passed through Sabertooth's shoulder. When she left it there, his arm exploded just like the tree and all the targets she had tried that maneuver on since, though they never blew up so bloodily, with blood bits and bone and other things spraying everywhere, nor did even the most realistic Danger Room target yowl as loud as Sabertooth did when his entire shoulder blew apart, dropping his arm to the snow.

Sabertooth stared at the frail that had just taken his arm, the shock and pain of the injury actually overloading the mental control from the chip in his head (not that it had been really controlling him all that much, just influencing him). He backed away, waiting for his healing ability to kick in, but with this kind of injury it would take hours, and he was already feeling faint from blood loss. Sabertooth knew though the instant Logan was up and about he'd come for him and try to finish him off in his injured state. So without even a backwards glance he ran off through the woods.

For her part Kitty stepped back, her gorge rising at the amount of damage she had done. After a moment Kitty controlled her gorge for now, she could throw up later. Though the fact that Sabertooth at least seemed to think his healing power could fix that was reassuring. She had just realized that she wasn't as happy about this whole fighting thing as she had thought. She turned from watching her, not opponent, victim worked better run off, to look over Logan. "Wolverine, are you alright?"

Logan shook his head, sparks and smoke from his magic induced shock coming off his hair and he waved off Kurt, who was hovering over him, ignoring his own nicks and scratches. "I'm fine kid that shock of yours knocked out the chip, but didn't do any other damage." He looked behind Kitty at Sabertooth, who was now practically out of sight into the woods. "Nice job, that should keep him busy for a few hours at least before it heals." Kitty resolutely did not look, and Kurt too looked a little green, though his gaze was steady on Kitty and he nodded respectfully. Logan got up and scowled. "Let's go. We've got a laboratory to smash."

Kurt smirked and nodded, and Kitty came back to the here and now with something to concentrate on. As Logan led the way through the woods back to the Weapon X lab she sighed. _I hope the others are having a better day than we are._

* * *

Jean had a rather nice, calm day at school until the classes actually ended. Her problems began when she began to change with the rest of the cheerleading team. Even with her belsham-trees protecting her from actual thoughts she began to get impressions of envy, jealousy and even hate as she began to change. When she pulled off her normal bra to switch it with a sports bra, revealing her perky C-cup breasts with their dark cherry nipples, those feelings skyrocketed and she frowned. _I really hope the soccer team doesn't have this envy issue or I may just have to quit. _The feelings came back again as she switched out of the loose fitting jeans she had been wearing to the cheerleader's uniform, but subsided as her body became once more hidden. She looked around at the other girls, a few of whom were already dressed, and followed them out to start stretching.

The football team was exercising in its field while the cheerleaders began to stretch close by because the marching band was practicing on the other field. The wave of uncontrolled lust from the football team that got through her belsham-trees was disturbing, even more than the feelings that came through from her fellow cheerleaders. She was thankful beyond words that her belsham-trees kept out actual thoughts, if she had to hear what those hormonal teens thought about her and the other girls, well she would have been forced to fry a few of them. She stopped mid-stretch at that thought, wondering where the idea of using fire had come from, not that she couldn't do it of course, but no, the idea of breaking their pelvic bones was much better. She looked over as she finished that exercise at the few kids, both boys and girls who were here to watch one team of the other practice. Lance and Pietro of the Brotherhood were among them and she frowned.

Almost as soon as she thought that the two surprisingly didn't broadcast as much lust as the football team she felt the ground tremor under her. She scowled then sent out a brief stab of power, a telepathic shout that hit both boys. _DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT! _They both winced and the tremors stopped and she suddenly smirked, realizing she could use a traditional feminine weapon to get them to back off for a few days. _I'm just starting my monthly, and you do not want to know what I'll do to you if you bother me! _She wasn't, that would be next week and she would be staying home those days as normal, she always did as the emotional chaos PMS caused effected her powers. Thankfully Rogue and Kitty didn't have the same problem, but Ororo did. The weather queen isolated herself for those days, and everyone else was thankful for it.

Her two targets flinched then looked at one another and got up hastily, not really knowing much about that time, only enough to fear it. The rest of the training went alright, after that, but as Jean was leaving the gym after her shower to meet up with her boyfriend to maybe go out on a date but certainly for a ride home her day tanked again. She rounded a corner of the gym to take a shortcut around its back to the parking lot only to find Duncan and a group of his friends surrounding Todd Tolansky and another boy wearing glasses who looked like a prototypical geek that she didn't recognize. She wondered how he knew Todd, who she didn't think was into computers or anything like that. However despite that minor question there was no mystery involved in what she was seeing. "What is going on here?"

Duncan flinched a little guiltily and her friends all looked down at their feet or away. Being caught by Jean like this was like being caught by their mothers for some reason, though thankfully none of them had ever been stupid enough to actually say so. "Er, nothing Jean, just, um, we found these two skulking around the gym," **Our territory** was implied there, but it wasn't actually stated, "And we were just asking them what they were doing here."

Jean looked at the boy with the glasses who looked rather rumpled and terrified and Todd, who looked rumpled (normal for him admittedly) and shifty. "I see, so it took four of you big strong football players to ask two younger boys who would barely make one of you together what they were doing here?"

"Little dweebs shouldn't be around here, we were just teaching them their place," one of the football players muttered stupidly under his breath, then froze as eyes the color of jade locked onto him with a disapproving gaze that made him feel about an inch tall.

Jean's frown deepened as she looked at her boyfriend. "You know what, I think you should all go before I report this." Duncan made to protest but she held up a hand imperiously. "I don't want to hear any excuses, this isn't the first time you've been caught bullying someone Duncan, and you know it. I don't want to be around you if you want to bully other people like this. Think about that, and I'll see you tomorrow. Now get out of here, all of you."

She glared at them and the football players, cowed moved past her shuffling their feet. Duncan paused and asked, "So I guess we're not going out tonight?" Jean turned to him and glared and he mumbled, "But how'll you get home?"

"I'll find a way." Jean said coldly, pointing off, and Duncan joined the other boys who were now muttering to themselves, angry at being talked to like that, but none of them were willing to try the redhead's anger. She turned to Toad and stared. "And what were you doing around here anyway?"

The two smaller teens looked at eachother. "We-were going to try and sell answers to the next math test to some of the football players, you can't be on the team if your grades fall below a certain point, so we thought we could make a lot of money." The nerd replied.

Todd took over the tale. "And then big, blond, and over-muscled decided they didn't need to buy when they could just take, and I objected. Thanks for the save Red."

Jean flashed out with the telepathic equivalent of a slap that hit Todd's mind. "Don't call me that!" As Toad flinched she glared at them both. "And if I hear that nickname around school or any rumors of you two trying to sell cheat sheets again, I will come looking for you myself, understand?" Both boys trembled under her stare and she nodded firmly and they ran off.

_Why am I feeling like an adult among a bunch of brats these days? _She sighed and pulled out her phone. To her relief Ororo answered quickly. "Ororo, I'm sorry to impose, but could you or Mr. Logan come and get me?"

Within a half hour thanks to not hitting any traffic Ororo pulled up in the now nearly empty parking lot in the mansion's van, a farcry from Duncan's Dodge Viper, but the company was better. "Rough day?" Ororo asked sympathetically.

Jean sighed getting in next to her and leaning back, closing her eyes. "Yes, a mix of my mental defenses not blocking out strong feelings in large quantities, my boyfriend being a typical teen jock and a few other little things." She opened her eyes and looked at Ororo, who also looked out of sorts, possibly because Harry hadn't come back yet, and Jean smiled as an idea struck her. "I don't suppose we could head out into the woods and have some flying practice?"

Ororo brightened up at the idea. "Well, if you think that will make you feel better?"

"I think it will make us both feel better," Jean said eyeing Ororo shrewdly.

Ororo smiled, "Yes, I think that is just what the doctor ordered." Her smile turned mischievous, "If for no other reason that watching your attempts at flight can be hilarious."

Jean pouted then joined the other woman's laugh. After a moment Jean said "I wonder where Harry is, and what the heck he's up to." _And if his day was as irritating as mine._

Ororo shrugged, but was wondering the same thing. "By the way, have you seen Kitten or Kurt today?"

* * *

Harry and his new acquaintance Emma had already finished the most irritating part of their day. While Emma followed Harry's request of erasing all knowledge of the fight from the boomerang users brain Harry went and got rid of the goons truck by transfiguring it, then went over to the one named Taskmaster who he had first killed. Emma came over to him then, looking down at the contorted pain filled face of the man, whose mask had fallen off at some point during his death throes. "And what happened to this one?"

"Poison, venom actually, from a very poisonous snake. My sword was soaked in it at one point, and it took on the properties of the venom." Harry shook his head. Poison like that was not his preferred method of killing, but then again it wasn't the worst he could have used either. After all, he wasn't about to use a lot of his tricks in front of a telepath he just met, no matter how fetching. And even together this group of bully-boys wasn't really worth anything more interesting anyway. With a brief moment of concentration and a pointed finger the dead body was transfigured to a rock of equal mass, which he then levitated over the side of the cliff and let fall.

Emma's eyebrow rose. "And you couldn't have transformed them all like that before?" She asked, fishing for information about her new acquaintance's abilities. She knew they were formidable but how much so eluded her.

"No, I can't transfigure living matter like that, well not something that can think anyway. If you can think you have a sense of self and I would need to fight that sense of self on it's home turf so to speak." It wasn't impossible, but it was damn tough, and Harry thought rather cruel. "So did you find anything in that Australian bloke's brain? Well, something we could use anyway?"

Emma frowned. "It seems as if it was a shot across Frost Corps' bow so to speak. We recently have begun to get into the weapons manufactory business, and another company didn't want the extra competition. They met with a man who identified himself as a Hammer Industries rep. Whether that was true or not I can't say, that could just be a way to throw someone off the real person behind this." Of course that new business had been taking a loss, going up against Hammer Industries, Stark Enterprises and the other larger and already entrenched companies. Her father had already been thinking about selling it off.

"Hmm, well whatever, if you're done I'll let the idiot loose and we can finish our ride, and then have a dinner meeting to discuss your forfeit of information shall we say."

"I thought you'd never ask," Emma smirked a little. "Best two out of three?"

Harry laughed and agreed, then released the still comatose Boomerang from his cocoon of earth, after which the two got into their cars and raced off again, leaving him behind with his new mental disorder and .

Again Harry's astonishing reflexes and the speed of his Huayra won over Emma's experience, telepathic radar and Ferrari 458. As they entered the city of Devos though Harry signaled she should lead the way and she did so, heading toward an extended stay hotel she knew in the city that had excellent security.

Harry still put up his own precautions after they parked of course, after which he cocked an inquisitive eyebrow at the young girl. "What are we doing here may I ask?"

Emma smiled a butter wouldn't melt in her mouth smile. "We are going to get the penthouse suite, it has two bedrooms and a lounge area where we can have our discussion."

Harry smirked a little at her presumption but nodded all the same. "Sure, but after we check in I want to walk around and see a bit of the city before we have our talk."

"That's fine by me," Emma agreed. "We'll probably be **talking** into the wee hours anyway." The way she emphasized the word 'talking' and looked him up and done made him roll his eyes. _ So since the innocent seductress didn't work she's going for the full-on seductress? I wonder if it's simply habit, because she finds it amusing, or because she's actually interested in me?_

Even with Emma demanding the penthouse suite they checked in quickly enough using the Frost name, though they split the bill. After that they went up and looked at the room, finding it indeed had two bedrooms, a sitting area, a large balcony and a kitchen, which made Harry smile. The suite came complete with cooking utensils as well.

As the clock struck eight the pair went out to see the city. They were interrupted by a white streak coming out of the night sky to land delicately on Harry's upraised arm. Hedwig perched there, checking on her human now that he was done with his irritating business things. "Hello girl, have a good time hunting?" Hedwig precked affably and Harry smiled. "Two rabbits, very nice indeed, though try not to eat too much. Wouldn't want you to get a stomachache, would we?"

Hedwig's answering preck was rather stuffy, and she nipped at her Harry's hair for a moment before turning her eyes and head to look at the blonde haired human standing beside him who was looking at them in amusement.

"I thought it was only witches that had familiars." Emma had loved fantasy books as a child, though she thought the legend of Camelot was far too biased against women and Tolkien had far too few female characters, though the character of Galadriel nearly made up for that on her own.

"Heh, no, wizards can have them to, well they did where I come from originally. This is Hedwig." Emma nodded raising a hand to touch the owl's feathers, noting that Harry had just admitted that his powers were magical in origin, and had again mentioned that he came from somewhere else presumably given his first mention of it, another dimension. "So, where's the market around here?"

Emma shrugged ignorance but the two still set off through the streets, Hedwig flying up to the balcony of the hotel to nap for a few hours before going out hunting again late that night.

As they walked through the streets, looking around at the sights and the architecture, sneering at the few other tourists in the city who were all taking pictures, going around in large groups and speaking loudly in Americanized English to one another about how quaint everything was.

Emma took this time to watch Harry and learn as much as she could about him, though her observations at this point had far more to do with his personality and bearing than his power, enough to tell her about his character and thus important to her to predict how he would react in social situations, which could often tell you just as much about someone as watching them handle a crisis.

For one thing he radiated a certain amount of charisma, which seemed to get people to notice or not want to come near him one or the other depending, Emma supposed, on their own temperaments. He made acquaintances easily, able to strike up a conversation with all of the market people as he looked around. Animals liked him too. Several times during their walk they walked past dogs all of whom wagged their tails and moved toward Harry to be petted, even random cats came out of alleyways for a good scratching. Harry also moved with complete, utter confidence, as if he knew there was nothing out there he couldn't face, though given his magic that was probably true. His presence was commanding, dominating the area he was in, a surprising feat for a boy who looked the same age as Christian, her older brother.

A familiar pang of sadness went through her at the thought of her brother. He was really the only family member she had that acted like a normal family member. Christian was nice and kind and thus was utterly unsuited to be part of the Frost family. Unfortunately Emma wasn't the first to notice this, and their father had made his life a living hell in dozens of ways large and small, especially since finding out he was gay. Nowadays, Christian drowned himself in drugs and alcohol to deaden the pain.

After walking around and seeing some of the produce and ingredients on hand he convinced Emma to let him cook, which Emma acceded to just to see if he was any good at it. By the time it was nine o'clock he had bought enough ingredients to make something for them for dinner, and they went back to the hotel.

As Harry started to cook Emma went and got her small trunk out of her car (small both because she hadn't planned to be in Switzerland for long and because her car didn't really allow for more) and brought it back up to the suite. After that she changed into her normal around the house attire, tight shorts and a grubby and short t-shirt, white of course, with no bra underneath. She was interested how Harry would take it, more she needed his help, so if she had to flash some skin, well it wouldn't be the first time she used her wiles for her own gain.

Harry looked up from where he was chopping small tomatoes, dicing them fine while behind him a pan of pasta simmered. His eyes widened and he smiled appreciatively at what she was wearing for a moment, but that was all before he looked back down at what he was cooking.

Emma frowned a little internally, wishing she could sense what he was thinking but then she shrugged, moving on to the meat of the discussion. "So you were saying you had a lot of actual gold. Well the first thing you need to know is any single citizen having that much gold will face a certain amount of scrutiny. You said you had what, two and a half tons of gold…." She rolled those words off her tongue and shivered a little at the sheer pleasure of it. "That will bring down a lot of scrutiny, circumspect or forceful depending on the country. You were right to create an account in Switzerland, as long as they don't think you're doing anything in their country they'll leave you alone, but gold will still catch the attention of those who watch such things. The richer you are, the more most first world governments will look at you, especially if you don't have a visible means of income. The best way would be to forge some documents that say you own an old abandoned mine somewhere and you're working it by yourself. Put a little into your account every month or so, or better yet randomly so it looks as if you're simply following a vein or whatever they call it. Now, what are you going to be doing with that money?"

Harry nodded to indicate he was listening as he finished slicing the tiny tomatoes and went to mince up some peppers, wondering how much he should tell the younger girl. After a moment he decided on a bit of the truth but no real details. _ After all, it's clear she needs my help, which I'll be more than willing to give when she eventually opens up, but she's also ambitious, and we've known each other for not even half a day. She seems trustworthy, but she is obviously in a dangerous situation, and she'll look out for her own interests first_. "I have several ideas long term. One of them will be in the clothing industry, for a start anyway. The other will be pharmaceutical in nature, but it will require a large chunk of farming land." He paused, "Huh, I'll need to look that up actually, I can't remember offhand how much or what kind of land those ingredients will need. So where would I go to buy large plots of land or get access to a cheap but excellent work force to create clothing? For now I just want to create a few prototypes."

Emma's eyebrows rose in surprise at that, and she took a moment to think of her reply. Frost Pharmaceuticals was one of the family's biggest earners, and the only one she was even remotely interested in. _If this product he's thinking of could actually sell, then the fact FP has a brand name already established and shipping and distribution system already in place would make it far easier and far more profitable to sell it through us. _ Yet it was clear there were some things Harry didn't want to share, and the exact nature of this item was one of them. S_o should I try to get him to open up or back off for now until we know each other better? Hmmm, wait I think, I can't sacrifice the personal aid I need now for the good of the company in the future, that would just be stupid. _ "That's interesting. If you want to buy land I would recommend in Greece, its having a recession right now and the government will be willing to sell large clumps of its land in return for cash, gold especially would be good for them, their currency is sinking fast. Watch out for buying too much land from private citizens as that can open a can of worms you really don't want to deal with. In terms of clothing, for single products Vietnam would be the place to go. They have clothiers there who will create whatever you want out of whatever you want for a very nice price. Also no unions an excellent point if you want to keep prices down."

Harry nodded thoughtfully at that as he finished putting together his special creamy dressing to go with the pasta, then moved on to put the finishing touches on his side salad. Both those suggestions dovetailed with his desire to use resources from the less powerful nations for his business in the future. _ I'm willing to work with the big powers eventually but there's no way I'm going to be tied to them or controlled by their policies. America especially with how none of their leaders have spoken out against the anti-mutant movement pisses me off. Not that the UK is any better, but still, for the supposed 'land of the free and home of the brave' it doesn't speak well of them._ "Hmm, okay, so can I use Vietnam as the central, I don't even know the word for it, where my company is based for tax reasons?"

Emma smiled, then leaned in to smell the food, her eyes widening appreciably. In her family's house of course the staff did all the cooking, but this looked as good as any of their chefs could make. Though that wasn't all that made her smile. "I believe that was your third question Harry! And yes Vietnam has a very company-friendly tax code, not the friendliest in the world but up there. And the bakshish, the gifts they will give you if you do use them that way will be much more than most other countries."

The two brought the food out to the table, with Emma going out of her way to bend over and stretch, but Harry earned her respect by only glancing at her, if she said it herself magnificent, rear once and then ignored her rather blatant flirting. He shook his head as he brought out a local bottle of wine and chilled it with a spell before pouring it into two glasses. "The brazen seductress fits your personality better, but I'm afraid it's not working on me."

Emma pouted a little but shrugged, deciding on a bit of honesty, wondering where it would take her. "You intrigue me, and I'm not used to meeting people I can trust without in some way manipulating them. Plus the more people look at my body the more they underestimate my mind. It may be the only thing that lets me keep any power going forward, I'm frankly desperate for any lever I can use, and my looks have always been one such."

Harry took a moment to take a bite of the pasta as he looked across at the girl, his eyes, which had been snapping with good humor, now dimmed visibly. Despite her self-control, which was so complete it reminded him almost painfully of Daphne in her ice queen persona (though far different in type, Daphne was simply cold and aloof, Emma could change from an icy hauteur that made Daphne look like an amateur to a very outgoing and brazen flirt, neither of which let her real emotions be seen) something far too close to distress had leaked through there. He wasn't blind to the fact she was still trying to manipulate him, but the fact she was desperate wasn't a lie. His lips twitched as she took a bite of the pasta and made that little 'mmmm' sound that a cook lived for and he asked "Why don't you tell me more about your problems, and we'll see what I can do to help? After all it'd be a shame to leave such a lovely lady to face the wolves alone, and we still haven't discussed a deal for some of your company's scanning equipment."

Emma smiled, but continued to eat silently for a few moments, the food was simply divine. After a moment however she took a sip of wine to clear her mouth and began. "My father is part of a group, sort of a gentleman's club called the Hellfire Club…."

Harry listened as he ate slowly, taking it all in, her family's lack of emotional connections, the issue with the Hellfire Club and this Sebastian Shaw. Emma let a bit more in the way of emotions show than she might have wanted, but it told Harry more than just the words she used. There was real hate, almost loathing toward her father in the way he talked about him, and fear, not a lot but some when talking about Shaw. It wasn't just the fact that by the rules of this club he would have control over her, though that was bad enough, but something else as well. It was as if she knew enough about him to be scared, but not enough to know why. There also seemed to be a problem with her older sister, truly quite a lot of hate there, but the reasons for it weren't clear. And the ways her father had tied up her own bank account to keep her from running went right over his head.

Emma paused as she finished her pasta, surprised that she had talked for so long and worried she had let out a little too much. Harry however simply looked at her compassionately, and decided to share a bit of his own past to show he understood where she was coming from. "I lived with my mother's sister and her family until I was twelve. They hated me because I was smarter than them and because of my magic, and none of them were shy about showing me verbally and physically they hated me. Trust me I know about living in a loveless home. Even going to a school where my life was in almost constant danger was better than that." He let that sink in a moment before moving on. "In terms of your specific issue with this Hellfire club, I can provide you with a bit of defense there, a two pronged defense actually, just in case."

He leaned back sipping from his wine. "But first I will need your word to not divulge where you have gotten the charm if it ever comes to light. I don't want the heat that would cause if my abilities become well known, not yet."

Implied in that statement was that he didn't want her to share anything of his abilities with anyone else, a sign of trust that made Emma's eyes widen, then she actually grinned a little at the amount of faith it showed in her and she vowed to prove worthy of that trust, which simply showed she too could be effected by Harry's charisma and good nature.

Harry put his wine glass down briskly. "Now, the defense I can provide is in the way of a charmed item. When you wear it, men will find you attractive as usual but not feel the desire to actually make a move on you. It is subtle but powerful and will target any man within a certain range. I will warn you however it will feed off your own body's energy to power it, so you will be eating more than you have previously as long as you wear it." The item would actually have a rune to take power from Emma's bio-field, much like the ward he had devised for Ororo, but it would have to power the charm which meant it would need to draw more energy almost as much as the ones in his present crisis suit design. The charm was designed to target other people, rather than a ward which was designed to target the person wearing it. It had been designed by Hermione who had designed it after studying the arithmancy for the **notice me not **spell/ward scheme, and had tried to see if it could be modified in specific ways. It turned out it could. Indeed it was her notes on the changes to the **notice me not **spell that allowed Harry to create a target specific **confoundus** spell like the one he had used on the Brotherhood kids.

"The next one is a ward designed, um, well it's designed to protect virginal daughters really." He coughed uncomfortably as Emma's eyes bore into him, and he hunched his shoulders. "Um, let's just say the society I was forced to be a part of back where I'm originally from was rather patriarchal in their thinking."

One expressive eyebrow rose as elegant lips twitched, and he went on hurriedly. "Um, anyway I had a few friends who had **views** about things like that. So what the modified runic array does is rather than simply making a man unable to stand to attention" Emma giggled at that then put a hand to her mouth, surprised that she had let that out. Harry simply grinned at her unabashed. "As I was saying, the ward will attack the wedding tackle of any man who touches you sexually, I.E. down there or up on your baps."

Now Emma did laugh aloud. "Baps?! Is that what you call them in Britain?"

"Personally I'd call them magnificent myself," Harry said letting his eyes slide down to her chest, which was shown off to maximum effect by the short shirt she was wearing.

Emma giggled again, preening just a little. "Well said Potter, so you can play the game."

Harry shrugged. "I can, but someone else has a prior claim I'm afraid."

Emma shrugged in turn, and was amused to see that Harry kept his eyes firmly on her own. "I would like meeting this other woman at least, after all" she smirked a little, "It's not as if I haven't had a few fantasies along those lines."

Harry gulped then shook his head shoving the idea of Ororo and Emma sharing a bed out of his mind. "Moving right along, the effect will be based on a three strike system. The first person to touch you like that will only lose his hard on, the second will have effect last far longer, and the third, well that will last for a month, and the ward will stay at that level, it can't differentiate from one man to another, only the intent. I could use another charm, one that would be far more offensive and a lot less subtle as well but I don't think you want that?" Plus there was no way even with feeding off her bio-energy that it wouldn't dissipate after one use, it was simply too energy intensive.

"Tempting but no," Emma said shaking her head. "How much time would you need to create something like that?"

Harry frowned, cursing the fact he hadn't thought to bring any of his rune kit or anything else. "About a day to get it right and make sure the bio-energy part doesn't suck too much to harm you or too little to work. Can you meet me somewhere in New York in the states?"

Emma rolled her eyes. "My family's mansion is right outside Matinecock New York, trust me if you want to meet anywhere in the state I can do that so long as I have the, ward did you call it? Or charm? Whichever it was I'll need it before the end of the school year. I'm to be presented" she spat the word, her emotions plain to see, Harry having won her trust by trusting her in turn and agreeing to help her, "to the Hellfire Club over the summer at some point."

"Then I think we should talk about the price for some of your scanners." Harry said, getting up to clean the plates.

Emma sat there sipping at her wine and watching him reflectively. "I was thinking of possibly grabbing some on my own and then bringing them with me, but my father is sure to notice something like that no matter how well I try to hide it." _And if he doesn't Adrienne certainly will be watching me for anything unusual, any sign of weakness she could take advantage of. Just par for the course with her really. _"So what you'll need to do is first set up a dummy corporation which can buy them and then someplace to store them. The price shouldn't be bad, not for someone who has two and a half tons of gold" she shivered again at that and Harry laughed at her over-the-top reaction from where he was cleaning the plates in the kitchenette. "I can walk you through that if you want." She knew how to create a dummy corporation of course, she had learned in an attempt to funnel some of her funds away, but her father's people had found out and shut it down. She had lost Wi-Fi privileges and the money she had already funneled to that particular project. _But Harry shouldn't have any problem, after all, no one is looking his way yet, and even if they are I doubt they are looking that closely._

That discussion went for another two hours as Emma walked her keen pupil through this process, then segued into illegal things Harry had done, and he opened up about a few of his more normal (not life threatening) adventures, and the two went to bed, Emma glad she had found a friend to aid her in Harry, and Harry thankful he had found Emma and was able to help her in return for her helping him. The friendship with him went without saying.

The next day they checked out of the hotel and went their separate ways after exchanging e-mail addresses, and making plans to meet up in a few days, the exact time would need to be chosen by Emma, as she didn't know yet when she could slip her watchers, and didn't want to lead her watchers to him. "I'll e-mail you when I get free," Emma said, as she turned to Harry after opening her car door and sticking her car keys in, the compilation CD she had in her player kicking in immediately, playing "I'm a bitch, I'm a lover" which brought a smirk to Emma's face. Reaching out she grabbed Harry's collar and dragged him into a kiss, not a deep one but heartfelt. "I'll see you later Harry." She got into her car and drove off without another word, leaving Harry to shake his head bemusedly behind her.

Harry rubbed his face for a moment shaking his head and chuckling then raised a hand to let Hedwig alight on his arm. "Hello Hed, have a nice night?" Hedwig precked amusedly as if saying 'yes I did, and did you?' and Harry chuckled. "A profitable one at least. Now, do you want to be in the car or meet me later, I want to drive for a bit before teleporting back to the institute." Hedwig ruffled her feathers, amused by her Harry's dismissal of the previous subject. The fact that an alpha like her Harry should have multiple mates was obvious to her and to any other animal, but it apparently hadn't yet occurred to him. Males, always so slow. Still she acceded to going with him in his Huayra, and a brief moment of conjuration created a perch in the front seat for her, looping it around and under the chair. Hedwig precked in satisfaction and hopped form his hand onto her perch. She was actually looking forward to this a little, seeing her Harry's driving from outside was pleasant, she wondered how it felt like on the inside.

Harry laughed a little as she settled into her perch, talons gripping the natural wood he had created out of air, her head twirling all around in interest as she looked at the inside of his car. Harry grinned and got in himself, taking a moment as he turned the key to look around. The speed, power and looks of the outside of the car had been part of why he had chosen it, the inside was the other. It looked like a futuristic attempt to create the interior of a space craft, all shiny metal, leather and diodes and it was obvious Hedwig approved, just as he did.

Harry decided to exit the city and head into Italy, along a road that, while excellent seemed to be almost empty. Perhaps Italy was also having a recession of something. Regardless he was able to gun his car again, and just enjoy the feel of the wind on his face as he zoomed along. Not as frenetic as it had been coming down to Devos the day/night before, but still a lot of fun. After about two hours he decided he had enough, and turned off the road slightly. Making certain no one was around he got out, shrunk his car, placed it into his pocket, and with Hedwig on one shoulder, disappeared with a slight pop.

* * *

Ororo was in a bad mood, not having realized how much she enjoyed waking up to her talks with Harry until he wasn't there to talk to. Especially with Kitten, Kurt and Logan missing along with the team's jet, she would have liked to have him here to help find them. Her eye narrowed as she thought of that. _If Logan has taken them on some wild adventure of his without telling us I am going to see just how good a lightning rod he makes! _

A knock on her door broke her out of her irritated mind state. "Come in." She belatedly realized she was still in her normal morning attire, and it might have been one of the youngsters, or maybe even Logan checking in, worrying thought that almost had her searching for a robe.

Thankfully it was Jean's head that stuck around the door to her arboretum. Jean looked at the older woman, astonished once again that she could sit there in the nude and yet still give of a regal, almost imperious feeling. The many facets of Ororo's personality that had been hidden up till now under her self-control fascinated her. "Still no sign of Harry?"

Ororo shook her head. "No, I wonder what that man is up to. Still I rather miss his presence here." Jean smirked a little and Ororo rolled her eyes, "Not like that Jean, we haven't taken that aspect of our friendship very far just yet. _Although I am greatly looking forward to when we do…_ "No it's his conversation I miss this morning. I hadn't realized how… how lonely I was at times in the morning without someone to talk to." She actually had never realized how lonely it could be until she had a friend to talk to, but now that he was missing it hit her hard.

Jean frowned a little, but then smiled, realizing it was her turn to provide a friend to lean on for the other woman. "Well, I'm awake, and I'm free, so if you don't mind I could try and fill in?" In actuality she was finding that the stronger in the use of her telekinesis she became, the less sleep she needed, no matter how exhausted she was when she went to bed. This was the first time she woke up this early but it might well be her new norm.

Ororo looked at the redheaded woman and smiled. "I'd like that, however," she grinned impishly gesturing at her naked body, "don't expect me to change my attire to meet your American standards. In fact you could join me if you want?"

Jean blushed almost as red as her hair but shut the door behind her as she moved forward to join Ororo at the table. "Not likely, not with the hormonal teens around here, I just don't understand how you can be that, that comfortable not wearing anything."

Ororo shrugged and began to tell the younger woman about her time on the Serengeti plains, and how clothing other than a loin cloth or a rap was very strange to her for most of her teen years. Jean responded by talking about her parents and growing up with them, as well as the shock of realizing her ability to hear voices wasn't her going crazy. Ororo laughed and mentioned how she had blown away the leader of her street gang with a blast of hurricane wind force after he had announced her old enough to learn to whore she became so enraged that she activated her mutant power under her control for the first time. It wasn't the first time she killed someone (a girl as young as she was had needed to defend herself several times before that) but it was certainly the most bloody, the winds had torn into him and thrown him threw a concrete wall. This led easily to a conversation on ethics and how right and wrong impacted how their powers should be used.

This aspect of the conversation carried the two of them through Ororo dressing and the two of them working together to prepare breakfast, by which time the three missing X-men had skulked back in. Once informed of this by a message from Xavier, the two women looked at one another and Jean motioned wordlessly that she would watch breakfast. A grateful Ororo marched down to the underground hanger to greet the trio.

Kitty looked up as she and Kurt followed Logan out of the hanger as the elevator opened ahead of them to disgorge Ororo, striding toward them, her emotions as usual these days visible to see, and she winced at the anger there. "We are so in for it…" Kurt moaned agreement while Logan merely grunted, ready to stand up for the two kids if need be.

Ororo stopped right before the trio, her hands on her hips. "And where were the three of you, hmm? Leaving without telling anyone is something I would expect from you Logan, but I thought you two would have more sense than that." Kurt and Kitty exchanged a look but before any of the three could say anything Ororo reached out and pulled both kids into a hug. "Don't ever go off like that again, either of you! Or, oh I was so worried, don't ever do this to me again!"

Kurt blushed a little, not used to being mothered like that. The gypsies that took him in were not touchy-feely with him with him, saving such things for their own son, not that they were mean or didn't treat him kindly, just not as physically loving as all that.

Kitty however reveled in the hug, knowing that Ororo wasn't angryat her, simply worried abouther. Then too, she was a very huggy girl and had missed having her parents around, both of whom were very physically affectionate. "Sorry Storm."

Logan smirked shaking his head and thankful that Ororo was able to show her emotions these days. If she hadn't they might have just gotten the initial harangue rather than the hugs. "Don't be so hard on the kids Storm, they sort of came along accidentally, and they were a big help. Without them I wouldn't be here now."

That thought brought a shiver to him and Ororo looked at him, one white eyebrow raised. "I see that you all have a story to tell. Well breakfast should be ready soon, so let us go upstairs, you can tell all of us about it all at once."

The kids nodded eagerly, though Kitty looked a little less so than Kurt. Yet when it came to food that was normal and Ororo didn't notice, and she kept one arm around Kitty's shoulder as they turned to the elevator, the young teenager not even trying to move away.

The quartet joined the rest of the X-men and Charles at the breakfast table, where Logan began to give a briefing on what happened. Kurt described his part of the action in detail, as well as Kitty's who kept her head down, eating slowly as she finally finished the letter she had been so anxious to complete yesterday.

Jean frowned a little, looking at the younger girl. She sent out a small telepathic touch to taste her emotions and frowned even more at the chaos she found there. She looked over at Ororo, who was sitting next to Kitty, though most of her attention was on the tale Kurt was imparting. _ Ororo_, the thought was a whisper, but it was enough to get Ororo to look at her. _ I think something is really bothering Kitty, I think you need to talk to her._

The African woman looked at the young girl at her side and mentally pinched herself for not noticing how withdrawn she was. Kitty would often go through a mood where she would fade into the background, but this was something different. _Thank you Jean, I can't believe I didn't see it myself. I'll talk to her as soon as breakfast is over._ Jean smiled happily, knowing the other woman would handle it. Ororo nodded back decisively and as Charles mentioned wanting to check the three wastrels down in the med bay she spoke up. "Actually professor, can you simply take Kurt and Logan with you. I think that Kitten and I need to have a talk woman to woman."

Kitty looked at her, her face torn between consternation and gratefulness and Charles nodded. _Of course something like this and using her powers like that would have an effect on her, I should have spotted it right away. And such a discussion might be better coming with Ororo than I. _ "Then I will leave the young Miss Pryde in your capable hands Ororo. I'll meet you two down in the med bay after I call the school and inform them you'll be absent again."

After breakfast while the others went off to school she led Kitty up to the solarium, where she knew the girl was more comfortable than in her arboretum. After a few minutes of small talk they got down to business. Over the next hour she heard from Kitty's perspective their adventure up in Canada, and what she had done and how. Ororo soon learned that Kitty was more than a little disturbed about how much damage she had done with her power. A part of her wanted to blame Mr. Potter for it, but it wasn't like she had used a runic array, just her own power, oh sure the idea had come from him, but it was still her power. The blood and everything had frightened her a lot, showing her what she could do if she tried and she was now questioning if she wanted to remain an X-man at all. Ororo heard her out, not judging her at all and then said "Being an X-man is not something we can force on you if you do not wish to be one, we cannot, I will not make you fight if you do not wish to fight Kitten. If it disturbs you, then do not do it. Not everyone can be that type of hero, and if you decide you want to be the non-violent kind and help the team behind the scenes, or even do something else with your life entirely, I will not be any less proud of you." Kitty nodded then yawned, and Ororo chivvied her off to bed, then went and found Charles to tell him about it. Charles was a little dismayed, but to his credit it was about what Kitty had been forced to do rather than how he may soon be down an X-man.

* * *

Kitty woke up around noon to eat some lunch and was going back to her room, talking to Ororo about what she had put in her letter to her parents, when the two girls heard a faint pop from the room Harry had made into a rune lab. Ororo waved Kitty behind her, one hand glowing with electricity and opened the door to see Harry leaning shaking his head, his hands on his knees as Hedwig flew from his shoulder over to her perch. "Ugh, long distance teleporting is as bad as apparating, crud, I am not doing that again anytime soon." Hedwig precked smugly, her own stomach having handled the jump with ease. "Yeah, yeah laugh it up oh so superior winged one. At least I have opposable thumbs." Hedwig's eyes narrowed and she huffed and turned away. Harry laughed and straightened up, looking over at the doorway to find Kitty and Ororo looking at him. "Hey you two, I'm back."

Ororo rolled her eyes at his cavalier attitude but Kitty hurried forward hugging Harry tightly and sniffling a little as she babbled out the story of what happened up in Canada. After a moments shock Harry listened intently, letting the young girl get it off her chest for the second time that day. After the young teen's babbling slowed down Harry looked up wordlessly at Ororo who nodded, indicating with a touch to her lips that she had already talked to the girl. Harry shrugged, and began to talk, hoping his words could do some good when added to Ororo's. "Kitty, Curly-Cat, look at me." Kitty looked up from in his arms to his face and he led her slowly over to the bean bag that had been hers for the last few days as she learned how to draw and use runes.

When she sat down Harry began to speak. "First let me say I'm proud of you Curly-Cat." Kitty looked at him wide-eyed. "You did what you had to do to defend your friends, that's the only thing anyone can ask of a soldier a hero or anyone. Ask people what they fight for, and when the camera's on they'll say reasons like freedom, or belief in the family pie or something." Kitty giggled as he mangled that phrase but her eye never looked away from his. "But most people will say in private they fight for their friends, the man standing next to them in the fight. That's what you did, and that's why I'm proud of you. Now that you're back, and you don't know if you want to be an X-man, that's fine too. A lot of people don't want to continue after seeing their the elephant the first time. I had two friends like that, and I never respected them or liked them any less because of it." Blaize and Padma had both stepped back after the first raid the New Marauders conducted against Death Eaters. They still supported the group and even fought with them occasionally when on rescue missions, but they only used defensive spells to protect them all, neither could stomach the idea of using violence against someone else. Later, when Parvati joined, she didn't have the same problem as her sister, but then again her desire for justice had overrode much or her normal attitude. "If you don't want to be out in the field with the others, that's fine because if you still want to help you can do so in other ways. No one here will judge you because of that choice. Just because violence doesn't agree with you doesn't make you any less than you are."

Kitty sniffled for a bit then looked away over at Ororo, who had been nodding along with Harry's words with a smile on her face. Kitty giggled a little then asked "Did you two somehow practice that or something?"

Ororo chuckled, moving forward to ruffle Kitty's hair. "Not at all Kitten, it's just that wisdom looks the same regardless of the angle." Harry smirked but nodded all the same.

Kitty giggled again, this time a little longer, before a yawn interrupted her. "You, you two need to figure out a single nickname for me okay? Choose one or the other." The two nominal adults in the room looked at one another challengingly and Kitty giggled again, getting up and heading to her room. "Thanks for the talk Teach, Storm, I'm going to go back to bed now."

The two both wished her a good nap and as soon as the door closed behind her Ororo pulled Harry into a hug, which he returned. "The next time you go off without telling me where Mr. Potter," Ororo said sternly, pulling back a little, "I will give you a wind enema, are we clear?"

Haryr gulped and nodded, yet when she leaned in for a kiss he responded eagerly. After a moment they pulled back and one of Ororo's eyebrows rose. "Why do you taste like spearmint with a hint of cherry?"

Harry smirked. "I met another mutant, I'll tell you about it if you want. I want to show you my new toy anyway." The other eyebrow rose to join its fellow and she followed as harry exited the house, waving a flippant hand over at Charles and Logan as they went into the elevator, going down to the med bay, to remove the control chip from Logan's head permanently. Once outside Harry took out his car and enlarged it back to normal, causing Ororo to gasp in shock. "So, you want to go for a ride with me?" Harry wiggled his eyebrows. "I want to find that Mystique chick anyway and get her to agree to a meeting. I want to hear her side of things."

Ororo smirked a little. "It just so happens I know where she is, she poses as the principal over at Bayville High. It allows her to protect the brotherhood to a certain extent from any trouble they cause, and as long as they don't abuse the privilege we have seen no need to try and remove her. Wait here and I'll go get changed."

Harry shook his head as Ororo walked off, taking this as another sign that Charles knew more about the opposition than he was saying. He wondered what other secrets the man was keeping, but shrugged it off for now. He'd take action if the kids got hurt, but until then it wasn't important.

Ororo came back quickly and Harry whistled as he saw what she was wearing now. Before she had worn a nice feminine business suit, now she wore a pair of jeans so tight they looked painted on, and a loose short sleeved button up shirt with several buttons undone allowing a nice hint of cleavage. "Veeeery nice luv, ready to go?" He quickly transfigured his own clothing to be casual, a good long shirt and tie with jeans.

Ororo smirked, pushing past him to get into his car, looking around in interest and finding it as nice on the inside as on the outside. She took out a pair of sunglasses and put them on, throwing her wild main of hair back. "Let's go Harry I suddenly feel the need to shock people. Their faces amuse me."

"Heh, I'll remember to take pictures." Harry shook his head and got into the driving seat and gunning the engine.

"And on the way you can tell me more about this other mutant, and what that has to do with your lips tasting of spearmint and cherry." Harry laughed, and the two exited the mansion at speed.

* * *

Mystique sat down in her lounge chair in her office, sighing tiredly and relaxing back into her swivel chair, still wearing her disguise of Raven Darkholme. _If I knew there was this much work involved in being the principal of a school, I would never have chosen it as my cover. _The paperwork and the showing the flag crap of walking around and just be seen was irritating. Training the kids before and after school was also irritating as hell, but they were all getting stronger, better at using their powers, even if their teamwork wasn't up to snuff yet.

She was still a little confused though by the newest X-man, Harry Potter. His mysterious message to Lance had yet to come to anything, but neither had he shown up anywhere._ I still have no idea what his powers are but at least he seems pretty neutral in our little conflict here. I have to wonder though what his opinions on the bigger picture are…._

Her thoughts were interrupted as her private cell phone rang in her pocket. She frowned, only a bare handful of people knew her number and none of them would use it lightly at an unscheduled time. Indeed the one who was mostly likely to be calling would only call if he couldn't come speak to her in person, which would indicate something had gone wrong elsewhere. Worriedly she picked up after the second ring. "Hello, this is Raven."

"Hello Mystique. How is the world of education?" A woman's voice speaking in calm, soothing tones came over the line and Mystique relaxed.

"Irene" she said tiredly, yet with a smile on her face and in her voice "how are you my friend?" Irene Adler was normally called Destiny most of the time, and was a mutant like Mystique. She was able to see into the future, though how far varied from a few seconds (very useful in a fight, making Irene deadly when pressed, though she wasn't anyone's idea of a front-line soldier) to years, sometimes even decades, though the farther she looked, the less useful her power was. Any prediction made within the next few years was almost guaranteed, but any beyond that became far harder to interpret in their wording. They were still accurate, but not very useful far in advance of the prediction itself.

She was also Mystique's closest friend, indeed her only real friend all the others were merely acquaintances at best. More than that, Irene was the only person in the entire world Raven trusted completely. Most people trust other people in little ways all the time, but not her. For Mystique, her power was a curse as she knew that enemies could be literally anywhere, could find her any time. Add to that the appalling number of times she had been betrayed, betrayed by friends, fellow soldiers, and her employers, and you had a person whose paranoia was beyond extreme. She handled it most of the time by simply being in disguise herself, but even under that she never let anyone close. Irene was the exception to that rule. They had known eachother for so long, ever since they were young adults back in 1903 when the daughter of a well-to-do merchant family hired Mystique, a young independent detective at the time, to help her figure out her visions and what they meant. The two of them had been friends ever since, and never had Irene proven less than a true friend.

Over the years, as Irene suffered her own betrayals, her own horrors, the two had become closer, even lovers at times, until that trust was one of the main foundations of their personal worlds. Both of them felt strongly about the need to defend mutant kind from exploitation and bigotry, and it had been both their choice to side with their current leader as the best chance to see that through. Mystique shook her head, but the smile on her face didn't disappear. "You realize you nearly gave me a heart attack calling out of the blue like this, our scheduled check-in isn't for another two days. What's wrong?"

"A third path to the future has opened." Irene said her voice deepening a little, become a little more otherworldly as she relayed what her power had informed her when she used it a few moments ago. "You will soon be meeting the fulcrum of it face to face, what you do then will be up to you."

Raven frowned, not understanding. "What does that mean Irene?"

"It means that before, there were only two paths dominating the future of mutant-kind, intertwined and so muddled as to be impossible to discern where one ended and another began." Raven nodded thoughtfully, understanding this probably meant Xavier's theories of co-habitation and peace and Magneto's idea of isolation and conquest. Obviously they would be intertwined, some mutants would choose one or the other, and they would just as obviously be at odds. "Yet now a third choice is part of the equation. Where the others twist and turn, signifying changing of the people involved, this one lays there like a bar of solid steel, as if the people who become part of it never deviate. It is… astonishing. It is not an easy path, I can see war and battles, but it is a third choice, and it will involve the wizard with the emerald eyes. More, all my predictions set more than a few years into the future are gone. Some are changed, others are simply not going to occur at all."

"Wizard? Emerald eyes?" Raven was very intelligent, and there was nothing wrong with her memory, she could remember quite easily a person with emerald eyes. "Potter, you mean Harry Potter? Wait, he's a wizard?! Son of a…." she trailed off, knowing her friend's distaste for vulgarity. "That explains, well that explains his powers and why none of the Brotherhood could explain what they were." Mystique and Irene had run into one real wizard and one wannabe wizard in the past, and Mystique had run into two wanna-be occultists during WW2 when she was working for the allies. Baron Struker had dabbled in the occult at one point, and she had worked with the allies forces to stop him. Another madman had tried to open some kind of portal to another realm, and she and Irene had both worked with a real wizard to close it and kill the idiot. Doctor Voodoo had been an odd character, but powerful. Though his powers were based more on fighting the undead than the living at the time that was just what they needed. She had also heard about a 'Sorcerer Supreme', but there was no way Harry Potter could be that individual, he was far too young. "But does that mean he's also a mutant or did Xavier bring him in as a combat consultant or something, that wouldn't be like him at all. Can you tell me anything about Potter's powers?"

Irene chuckled tiredly. Using her power to look into the future was draining and the further into the future the harder. She had been so fascinated by what she saw she had expended a lot of her energy looking. She was in fact going to conk out for a while very soon, whether she wanted to or not. "You know my powers don't work like that, the images are so confusing its impossible to tell, I just know he is from elsewhere, and different than any sorcerer from our dimension, powerful in odd ways. He is center of this path, the fulcrum, and will be joined by the power of nature, of the cleansing flame, of the diamond frost, and others, though I cannot make them out, Russian steel is one, and others, a flame from the Orient, some others. He will be important and you have a chance now to meet him and possibly join him if you wish, though the outcome of is so affected by others that I cannot see if it will be good or bad." The fact Irene would follow her didn't need to be said it was so obvious.

"I'm sorry Irene, you must have exhausted yourself. Go to bed my friend, I'll call you tomorrow afternoon. Let me handle it from here." Raven said, her voice gentler than most who knew her ever heard, a note of actual apology in her voice. Irene sighed in weary assent and hung up, leaving the shape-shifter to wonder what she was going to do, when she should expect Harry Potter to contact her, and how he would do it. This would be answered momentarily.

* * *

Jean stretched contentedly at the back of her last class of the day, world history (which was more American rather than World but still interesting), having gotten there early enough to get a seat in the back where she could relax. She was a few weeks ahead in the reading anyway, and the teacher for this class didn't assign many assignments, simply lumping all the information into the unit tests and two papers per semester, the next of which she had already begun. She wasn't complaining though, she had physics right before this, so a nice lazy class right before having to deal with the errant emotions of her fellow cheerleaders was just what she needed. _Ugh, only ten more minutes, I feel like a child wanting to pair the time down to smaller and smaller increments to put off getting out of bed._ As she finished stretching she felt someone else's eyes on her and turned to look as Scott looked away from where he was sitting a few place over. She frowned a little, but then shrugged.

The fact that Scott had the same class was a mixed blessing. While she was still friends with him, the way he had been acting lately had soured their friendship and she couldn't bring herself to care much. Scott refused to think he was in the wrong pushing Potter, not learning as well as he could and playing favorites (which they had a massive row about earlier), and until he did she wasn't willing to be the one to bend. _Really the similarities between Scott and Duncan are amusing as hell. One is opinionated because he's been chosen as our leader, the other because of his family's money, one thinks he's entitled because of how good he looks and his football skills, the other because of the 'tragedy' of his power_.

Her thoughts were interrupted as a few of the kids on the outer side of the classroom looked out the window, whispering excitedly about something in the parking lot. Since this class had a side facing the lot and was on the second floor they had a good view of the parking lot, one that was normally uninteresting in the extreme. She cocked an eyebrow, wondering what that was about. Suddenly a wave of envy and lust hit her from both the boys and girls who were looking out the window, and several others gasped. One of the boys even muttered, "Damn who is that fox?"

Her friend Taryn, who was one of the most boy-crazy girls she knew despite having a good head on her shoulders, hissed a reply from where she was sitting between the windows and Jean. "That looks like Ms. Munroe, you know, the foreign languages teacher from over at the Xavier Institute, looks like she's had a bit of a makeover though. Never mind that, who is the hotty next to her? Look at that suit, and that smile, and are those green eyes?"

Hearing that Jean was torn between banging her head on her desk and laughing. _Guess Harry's back, wonder what he and Ororo are doing here._ _There goes my normal day._

* * *

BY the time the pair had parked they had garnered quite a lot of attention and the school day had ended, letting out hundreds of kids to meet their parents/friends/buses, all of whom were looking at Harry and Ororo. "You think we made an impression?" Harry laughed as he closed his car door.

Ororo laughed too, walking around the car to sit on the front of it, her legs crossed languidly. "I believe so, and it is indeed a pity I forgot my phone, my nephew's face in particular is amusing, and would make a lovely photo to send his parents."

Harry laughed again touching her lightly on the shoulder. "You want to come in with me?"

"I think not, Raven will look at you with suspicion anyway, my presence would needlessly aggravate that response. Besides," she cocked her head, smirking a little, "I think my nephew and I will need to talk here for a moment."

"Have fun breaking his mind," harry said waving one hand and moving off towards the front of the school. He walked in and asked the first teacher he came across, a woman in her late forties who looked at him as if he was candy that she wanted to eat up, much like several of the teenage girls he could see, something he pointedly ignored. He knew they weren't actually attracted to him, just to the fact he was good looking and had a fantastic car. "Excuse me, can you direct me to the principal's office please?" She did so, strangely hiding one of her hands in her pocket as she leaned forward unnecessarily, pointing out the way. Harry simply nodded, thanked her and moved on, shivering a little as soon as he was around the corner.

He nearly bumped into Pietro and Lance, who were coming the other way, but he dodged around them easily. "Hey lads, nice day huh?" Before either of them could react he had moved on, leaving them both behind to stare after him along with dozens of other students, wondering who the man with the emerald eyes was.

Lance however knew who he was and he turned toward Pietro. "That's the Potter guy right? Wonder if he's here to meet with Mystique like he said he would."

Pietro shrugged, looking back at the older man, a little angry at how many admiring glances he was getting. "I don't know, but I don't like him." _Maybe father should know about this, nah, whatever the punk can do I can handle, well me and the rest of the losers anyway._

Harry moved on and soon found himself at the principal's office on the third floor. After a brief discussion with the secretary in the outer office he was ushered in to see the principal, leaving the impression he was an alumni of the school just stopping by for a chat. The principal stood up, a rather severe smile on a rather severe face, thin, high cheekbones with a pair of glasses with red rims, and a deliberate, if Harry was any judge, unattractive female body covered by a serious business suit. As soon as the door shut behind her secretary however her smile disappeared. "So, Harry Potter, wizard, and mutant?"

Harry refused to let any of his surprise show, wondering internally at how she had figured it out. But he realized that the time was fast approaching when he would no longer be able to hide. He was determined to not show all his cards anytime soon though. "I see my reputation precedes me madam. Harry potter at your service, and my mutant power is rather a minor one. However, I came with a bit of a proposition."

Mystique sat back in her chair, keeping her eyes locked on the man in front of her. The very dangerous man, she realized, one with the eyes of a veteran soldier, and the way he carried himself told her he was an officer of some sort. It made her remember what Irene had said mere moments ago, about this man representing a third path for mutant-kind. It remained to be seen what kind of future it was however. "I'm listening, though what one of Xavier's people could say to me that I would find interesting is beyond me."

Harry barked a sharp laugh. "Well, I'm not really with him rather I'm more there to help the kids. What I'd like is to hear your side of this issue of mutant-kind's place in the world. But rather than just listen to you alone, I want to set up a bit of a debate, give you a chance to use your words to convince me and a teacher and student pair from the institute and let them do the same to you."

Mystique blinked in shock. The idea of a rational debate had never occurred to her, and she wondered if she should agree to this idea. To buy more time to think she asked "And where would this debate happen exactly?"

"Somewhere neutral, a public restaurant somewhere this Friday say, any recommendations?"

Mystique decided to see what kind of resources this man had, only realizing after she spoke that she had tacitly agreed to the idea. "Then how about the Spogeo, the new Italian restaurant that just opened in town?"

"Fine by me, say eight-ish?" Mystique nodded, cursing a little and wondering who to bring along. The idea of Blob or Toad in a fancy restaurant like that boggled the mind, so the choice was really down to Lance and Pietro, but the choice between them was a tough one. "Excellent, I'll see you then, now if you'll excuse me, I want to make certain none of your students tried to touch my new car." And with that Harry left, leaving behind a very confused shape-changer, who was wondering what this discussion would bring.

* * *

"A-auntie O, wh-what are you doing here? And why are you wearing… wearing that?" Evan asked, his face stuck somewhere between furious and confused.

All in all Ororo thought it rather cute. "Well Evan, I am wearing this because I feel like it. And I am here because Harry came home and wished to relay a message to the principal." She spoke circuitously, having noticed the dozens of people around in hearing range. Indeed she was now receiving even more admiring glances than Harry's Huayra. She rather liked the name, and felt the Incan god of wind it was named after would find it a most pleasing avatar. "After that he and I will be taking a bit of a drive together." Many of the boys who were staring at her turned away at that point seeing she was taken though a few, two of whom she recognized from going to football games where Jean and the cheerleaders performed, didn't and began to make their way out of the crowd toward her. She shook her head mentally, as if she would ever be interested in little boys.

"B-But, what will people think of you dressed like that?"

"I care not of other people's opinions," Ororo said coolly, "Storms have many different faces, nephew. So long as I stay true to myself I see no reason to apologize for how others perceive me."

Evan gaped at her, trying to reconcile the change in his aunt that had been going on the last few days. Rogue however who had joined them at this point grinned. "Ah think yah can call that part o' bein' a woman sugah."

Ororo chuckled. "Perhaps." She looked over at Evan, her manner challenging, regal and aloof despite her clothing. "I am who I am nephew mine, the shell I was before was just that, a shell, barely scratching the surface of my full self. Accept it and move on."

Evan scowled a little, not really used to thinking of his aunt as this outgoing, this vibrant and, well **sexy**. It was disturbing the hell out him given how she had always been this calm, almost self-effacing and quiet person before. Rogue took one look at his face and giggled while Scott, who had come through the crowd with Jean, simply patted him on the shoulder in commiseration.

Jean on the other hand walked toward Ororo, wondering again how the other woman could look so sexy and yet so regal and commanding at the same time. It never occurred to her that she often gave off the same appearance when she was angry, like she had been the day before at Duncan and his fellows. "I take it you're feeling better Ororo? Harry had the medicine for all that ails you?" She said, causing the other X-kids to gape at her in surprise, wondering where that came from, and why Jean felt so comfortable talking that way to the older Storm, who despite her new looks and attitude was still one of their teachers.

Ororo simply laughed holding out one hand while the other rubbed her temple. Realizing that the weather witch wanted, Jean reached out and squeezed her hand, even as Ororo replied to her previous comment. "Yes well, he convinced me to get out and about and that seems to have done the trick for my little funk."

Jean sent a bit of her power through Ororo's hand, the physical contact making it easier. As soon as she did Ororo's mental voice said, _I want to thank you again for pointing out that Kitty was having a problem this morning. She was, well her problem is her own to share, but I think my talking to her helped. She was close to a complete breakdown, and if you hadn't told me about it, well it would have been much worse than it was._

Jean gripped her fingers firmly saying, _Don't worry about it Ororo, I was just happy to help. We all need shoulders to lean on sometimes._

Ororo smiled again and the two women let go of one another's hands. Jean looked over the car now, whistling appreciatively. "That is one hell of a car. Where in the world did Harry find that thing?"

Duncan forced his way through the crowd of interested kids as the crowd thinned with many of the kids heading over to their rides. "Fancy piece of nothing Jeany, European crap, all flash and no power."

"My car can outlast and move faster than any dinky yank made car boyo. It's a Pagani Huayra, and it is one of the fastest cars in the world." Harry moved through the crowd, which parted around him naturally. He was about to use his regular nickname for her when he saw Jean standing there but something dangerous in her green eyes caused him to change his mind before the word came out. "Grey, you're looking your usual fetching self, how are you doing? Any new breakthroughs?" He asked, obliquely questioning if Charles had spoken to her.

Jean, her jade eyes caught by his emerald ones flushed a little but shook her head, a smirk on her lips. "You're looking good too Potter, who knew someone so scruffy could clean up so well." She then addressed the second half of what he said, thinking he meant her occlumency training, and worded her answer as if he had asked about a history paper or something. "Nice car, and no, no new breakthroughs, though the source you gave me is still helping a little."

Harry frowned a little as he patted her shoulder, which caused Duncan to scowl a little at the familiarity, even as he wondered how a shrimp like Harry had bagged a sexy thing like the older black chick. "Pity that. Ah, well, Ororo and I are off for a bit, so I'll see you lot later." Ororo nodded and got into the passenger side of the car as Harry got behind the wheel, ignoring the jealous looks from the guys and the longing looks from the girls. The two drove off living a bit of chaos in their wake.

Taryn glared at her friend. "You live with that Hotty and Scott both, god how lucky can one girl get?"

Jean shook her head, moving off toward the gym. "Harry only moved in a few weeks ago, and if you're interested in Scott…."

* * *

Ororo and Harry drove around for the rest of the late afternoon, stopping in to grab a bite to eat before heading out into the under populated mountains. Ironically they wound up near the endurance camp that the youngsters had gone to, and they pulled off to the side of the road in a little secluded area that had a wonderful view of the surrounding forests and meadows. The two ate slowly, sitting close to one another and leaning up against the side or Harry's car, telling one another in more detail about what they did yesterday.

Ororo had known since the beginning that Harry was making long term plans, plans that might not include staying with Charles and the X-men. He believed in equality between homo-sapien and homo superior (a name he never used actually) but he and Charles had very different views of how to follow that dream. More there was still a tension between them whose origin Ororo couldn't quite figure out. She was worried for the day when they would split, but from what Harry said of his plans it was a few months in the future, something which she was very thankful for. Right now though she had other things on her mind. "So this Emma girl, you honestly believe she was in a very dangerous position?

"Oh yes," Harry said rather grimly, wiping at his mouth with a napkin. The food was sandwiches, turkey clubs, and they were in his opinion mediocre, but filling. "She let a little more of her emotions slip than I think she wanted to, and she was very afraid of this Sebastian Shaw character. I want to see if I can find any information about him and his business, but whatever the reason the fear was real, just as much as the loathing she felt toward her father. Are you… are you irritated she came on to me so strong?"

Ororo took the time to finish the last bite of her own sandwich before replying, giving her time to think. "In all honesty I am not. We have not formalized our relationship, in fact we barely have a relationship so it would be….."

She was interrupted by Harry pulling her into a kiss. The kiss started rather chaste, but quickly became deep and hungry on both their parts. Ororo pushed off the ground and slithered into Harry's lap, neither disengaging from the kiss as Harry's hands fell from her shoulders to cup and fondle her rear. Ororo moaned into the kiss opening her mouth and their tongues began to twirl and slide along one another in her mouth. Her own hands went into his hair while she ground her core against his rising excitement. After a moment they had to pull back for air and Harry began to attack her neck with little nips and licks between words. "Let's change that then…" Ororo let out a deep throaty moan that was among the sexiest noises Harry had ever heard.

He decided right than he wanted to hear that noise as often as he could for as long as he could, and as Ororo continued to grind herself into his lap, he gripped her jean clad rear with one hand, bucking up beneath her as his other hand trialed up her back and around her side, gently touching the side of her breasts before just as gently playing with one of her breasts through her shirt. Even with the shirt in the way the sensation was incredible, and Ororo moaned even loader. After a moment, as their movements began to get even more frantic Harry latched onto her neck, using one of his personal tricks, parseltongue. Snakes didn't communicate with sound, but with vibrations and when Harry was speaking it his tongue vibrated. When Ororo felt that sensation against her collarbone, which was a sensitive part of her, her moan turned into a throaty yell of pleasure that rose to the sky as she came down hard on his lap, her love juices leaking through her panties. Harry moaned aloud in turn as he finished as well from the friction caused and they both fell back, with Ororo letting out little gasps and moans as she leaned on his shoulder.

It had been five years since Harry had last even seen a girl, and a bit longer since he been with a girl. This was a woman whose beauty exceeded that of any girl he had been with back in his former dimension was it any wonder he found himself out of practice and shooting a little too quickly? Ororo, despite having had a boyfriend in college a scant two years ago, had never felt anything like that with either of the men she had been with, an orgasm when she was still fully clothed? Her last boyfriend couldn't even give her one when her clothes were off and they were having full on sex! And the older tribesman she had been with as a teen had good endurance and size, but hadn't really cared about foreplay or her own needs. That had simply been the best orgasm she had ever had, her legs felt so weak that she knew she wouldn't be able to stand up. "What," she half moaned, half gasped, "Was that?"

"Heh," Harry chuckled, as his hand flashed in a very specific version of the **scourgify, **cleaning his pants and at her nod her own jeans, which had a very small dark spot on them. "It's called Parceltougne, a magical ability that gives me the ability to speak to snakes. Snakes talk using vibrations you know?" Ororo looked at him in shock, her grey eye wide at the implication, a shiver going through her at the idea of feeling something like that on more sensitive bits of her. "So, just to make it formal, will you be my girlfriend?"

Ororo chuckled throatily, leaning up and kissing his neck gently. "Oh yes, I definitely think you are a, what's the phrase, a keeper? Yes, you are a keeper." Harry grinned and the two kissed and simply sat there together for a time cuddling before reluctantly getting up and heading back to the mansion.

When they arrived all the girls took one look at Ororo's flushed face, wobbly gate and lightly bruised lips and began to giggle wildly to one another. Jean simply grabbed her and led her off for a talk, with Rogue and Kitty following eagerly. Harry simply smiled and walked away, ignoring Evan's glare and Kurt and Scott's looks of admiration.

* * *

At the same time that Harry and Ororo were having their moment together Emma Frost had arrived home. She first caught a flight on the family's personal jet then drove home in her Ferrari, uncertain of the reception she would receive. After all, she knew that her father knew she had gone to Switzerland to see if she could somehow free up some of her money and get away from his control, but on the other hand he knew that would fail, and she had been gone a little longer than she said. But on the other hand, she had called ahead about the kidnapping attempt.

After checking in with the mansions outer security and being let in, she parked her car in the huge garage next to one of her father's armored limos and then made her way into the foyer. Emma found her father and her older sister, the only two in her family really interested in the business, waiting for her there. Her brother wasn't for various reasons, and her mother, well those few hours where she wasn't on her prescription drugs were becoming more and more infrequent. Her younger sister might eventually be interested in the business but she was too young, too flighty, to be a part of any decision making now.

"Hello daughter," Winston Frost said, his voice controlled, measured and highly upper class, without a hint of actual care or concern for Emma showing in either stance or tone. Winston was a man who lived for one thing, to make more money and expand his family's business empire. He saw all of his children as tools to that end, with him holding the strings even as he officially retired. His son was a major disappoint in that, though both his oldest daughters showed promise. His middle daughter was cold as she should be, controlled and finely tempered with a ruthlessness that he had carefully cultivated over the years in various ways. Her mutant power was a major asset as well, though one he was careful to call upon rarely (and one he was secretly glad she was unable to use on her family for some reason, their shared genetics gave them all immunity). But her independent and headstrong nature worked against that. His oldest daughter however, while as cold and calculating as he could want, reveled in cruelty large and small. She was also far too egotistical and her own powers of psychometry, the ability to discern an item's past as well as how to use it, were not nearly as useful as Emma's own.

"Sir," Emma replied, her face as hard and blank as she could make it. That was the rule of this household, be cold, be frost to protect yourself from the rest of the family, reveal nothing to outsiders, and always remain in control. It was a lesson Emma had learned very well indeed.

Without another word Winston led the way to his office, a place of extremely expensive, well chosen pieces but as little actual character as the owner himself. He waved Emma into one chair while Adrienne took another to the side of the desk as he sat down in his padded chair. "You phoned ahead about some kind of issue, a team of kidnappers?"

Emma nodded, then briefly summarized the conflict, leaving out Harry's involvement as much as she could. She described him as a mutant with the power to caste illusions with an incredible car she wanted to race (one of her well known hobbies, and something her father could see easily) that she had met by chance, a cover she felt would protect him from further interest, and one who could also be used to cover her involvement with him in the future, useful but not useful enough for her father to take a closer look at.

The ruthless dispatch of three of the four attackers, with the fourth 'running away' impressed Winston, though Emma could tell Adrienne found something was off about the tale, her usual intense dislike and rivalry with her sister making her immediately suspicious of anything that Emma said. That and the fact she showed no surprise at all when Emma talked about her attackers and their various powers made Emma wonder how exactly the team of super powered kidnappers and Hammer industries had known to expect her in Switzerland. _After all, it was sort of a spur of the moment thing, with only my family knowing I was gone, let alone where I was going…._

Winston asked some questions about the battle, mostly focused on how effective Harry's 'illusions' were, but Emma downplayed them as much as she could, saying they worked best on someone who was already concentrating on something else, like say one of her telepathic pain blasts. She made certain he knew it was mostly her use of her own power that saw her through. Well, that and the fact they were fighting alongside a handy cliff.

After a moment Winston leaned back, his fingers tapping on his armrests thoughtfully. "Hmmm, I will have to think of some way to tweak Justin Hammer's nose for this. Business is business but such an overt move is in poor taste, rather graceless, though obviously we'll need confirmation he was behind it first. You will of course be going to school tomorrow, let no one see any weakness in you. I trust you can come up with your own excuse for your absence. Now leave me." And with that he turned to some paperwork on his desk, dismissing his daughters. Both Adrienne and Emma stood and left. Not once had Winston mentioned any concern for Emma's safety or how she was coping with having killed someone. In this family showing concern for one another was seen as weakness, and it wasn't as if Emma hadn't killed before.

Adrienne turned to her younger sister as soon as they were in the hallway. "Such a pity that you weren't kidnapped Sister dear, after all you've been wanting to get away from the family ever since Father named you his successor." The words came out precise, clipped and cold yet filled with venom. Adrienne absolutely hated the fact their father had passed over her to choose Emma to succeed him. More she had always hated Emma anyway, since the moment Emma's powers had awoken and outstripped her own.

Emma let a little smirk appear on her face. "It would have been if I had set it up myself, yet I wonder who informed Hammer Industries of my movements. It's almost enough to make one paranoid don't you think?"

Adrienne's eyes narrowed slightly but she shook her head. "Clumsy Emma, clumsy, you should be more careful in 'subtly' questioning someone. I didn't have anything to do with it. After all, if I had it would certainly have been organized enough to overcome any random passerby's involvement. After all in such things you can only be guaranteed a few such opportunities, you should take that to heart for your own dealings."

Emma's smirk widened a little, knowing that Adrienne was lying as soon as she spoke. She only tried to condescend to her when she was trying to cover something up. "Oh, don't worry Adrienne, If I get even one shot at **anyone** that will be all I need."

* * *

After seeing the kids off to school the next day (with Kitty, Kurt and Rogue all asking him for rides in his car) Harry spent the time until they got home tinkering with his new toys. First he added a ever refilling rune on the inside of the fuel tank, something that took quite a bit of doing given he couldn't exactly remove it, he had to inscribe it where it was. Thankfully he had picked up a few devices for that purpose, including a crystal of quartz that allowed him to funnel his magic through it easily enough, as well as a set of long pliers to hold the crystal in place. A small light set at the bottom of the tank allowed him light to work with.

After that he warded the Huayra to give it an anti-theft protection. If anyone touched the car with intent to steal it, they would be shocked badly. After that he cast an unbreakable charm on it, then drove it for a bit to make certain the spell hadn't had an untoward effect on its performance. It hadn't and after that Harry had a car that could survive smashing into a brick wall without a scratch.

Next he began to put together what he would need to inscribe what amounted to a tattoo that would allow him to fly. Harry wanted it a part of his own body, as that way even if his Crisis suit was damaged, ripped or whatever, he could still fly. The problem was that he had never tried making a magical tattoo. Magical marks like the late unlamented Corpse Botherer's had were tricky, part runic creation, part permanent charm and not something he had ever looked at, well except for ways to identify them. Normal runes were inscribed on a non-magical object, like a rock, piece metal or what have you then were infused with magic after that. But a wizard's body had magic already in large amounts. This meant that using runes on his own body might have odd effects that he didn't want, so he had to be very careful.

Figuring out what he wanted to do and how to do it took him the rest of the day, by which time the kids were at home.

Harry then led them through a team exercise. Everyone showed improvement from when Harry had arrived, but none more so then Jean and Rogue. Jean's power had risen beyond anything Charles had ever thought to see from her, and Rogue's permanent absorption of Juggernaut's powers had made her go from someone with limited utility to the team powerhouse. Even Scott, who still wasn't willing to really listen to Harry thanks to the tension between him and Charles, had gotten a little better at using his powers and at leading the team, becoming a bit more flexible in his tactical thinking. Unfortunately he still wasn't really willing to listen to others in the field and was still playing favorites, but Harry thought that Jean would handle that eventually on her own.

After that Harry made the reservation for the next day at the Italian restaurant that Mystique had named.

* * *

The next evening however he ran into problems when he asked the kids who wanted to come with him and Ororo. After explaining what he wanted to have happen, and getting Charles to endorse the idea (Charles was certain that any reasoned, well thought out argument would back his own position when it came to mutant integration in normal society) he asked "So, who wants to come with us?"

Jean frowned. _ I would really like to but… _"Sorry Harry, I'm going out tonight on a date with Duncan." Duncan wanted to make up for his recent gaffes, and she had agreed to let him try. They had after all been going out for a while now, and she didn't want to let that die just yet.

Rogue shrugged, not at all interested. "ahm going tah New York City with Kurt and Logan for some errands after school, so not me, sorry." Kurt nodded agreement.

Evan shook his head quickly. "Not interested Harry, besides there's a skateboarding competition going on down town after school, me and some of my friends have been organizing it for weeks.

Scott frowned. "I was going somewhere, but this sounds more important so"

"Oh no you don't!" Jean interrupted, glaring at him from where she was sitting next to Ororo. "Taryn's my friend, and you're not going to stand her up on your first date. You are going to take her out and show her a good time, am I clear?" Scott nodded cowed and she sat back with a pleased expression on her face.

Kitty grinned. "Well I'm free, so where are we going for this shindig?"

Harry chuckled. "An Italian place by the name of Spogeo, do you like Italian?"

Kitty gulped. "Um, I like Italian well enough, but I don't have anything I could wear to a place that fancy here. Er, I suppose we could take a trip to my folks though?" She finished a little hopefully. She hadn't brought her full wardrobe when she moved in, and they had never gone back to get more.

Ororo and Harry looked at one another, Ororo raising an eyebrow and Harry first cocking his head then shrugging. After that Ororo nodded and turned to Kitty. "We'll pick you up after school Kitten and go shopping, I don't actually have something that fancy either after all."

"Or I could always transfigure something for the both of you." At their scoffing glares Harry shrugged, "Just a suggestion." With that sorted breakfast broke up and the kids left for school.

* * *

Rogue walked through the corridors of the school to the principal's office during the lunch period, and nearly ran into Principal Darkholme walking out of her office. She fell back and would have fallen if the older woman hadn't reached out and grabbed her by the elbow and halted her progress. That brief skin to skin contact activated her power momentarily, but Mystique let go before anything could happen. Rogue shook her head, and as quickly as her power activated, it went away. "Thanks," she muttered, looking at a window to make certain her appearance hadn't changed or anything.

"Not a problem Rogue," Raven replied a little breathlessly, before she shook it off. Rogue's touch was powerful, but that small a moment had thankfully not been enough to drain her more than, say running up two flights of stairs. "Were you looking for me for some reason?" She asked, and then cursed at how hopeful her voice sounded. She wanted to reconcile with her adopted daughter, but on her own terms, not when she was still following Charles and his foolish dream of coexistence.

Rogue frowned a little then shook her head. "Ah was just told tah tell you that Mistah Potter and the others will meet you at Spogeo's downtown at seven."

Raven looked around and seeing that there was no one nearby nodded understanding. "alright, myself and one of the others will meet them there. Who is it?"

"Kitty, Storm, and Mistah Potter," Rogue recited then the two looked at one another. Rogue had never been all that close to Mystique, she was a hard woman to care for, so standoffish and stern, but she had been the only family Rouge had ever known, and the distance between them still hurt. Yet at the same time it was Mystique and her attempts to manipulate Rogue that caused that rift, and Rogue refused to be the first to reach across the divide. "I, I'll see ya round Ms."

Raven opened her mouth to say something, then closed it and nodded and the two turned away from each other, neither willing to take that first step to reconcile or even knowing how.

* * *

After school Ororo and Harry did indeed pick Kitty up from school causing another commotion but neither cared about it this time. Kitty got into the car and was surprised that there was enough space in the back for her to sit comfortably. She looked up at Harry who winked and whispered "Space expansion charm." Kitty nodded, awed anew at what magic could accomplish.

The three of them drove to a rather high class clothing shop, the kind Kitty had never been to and that Ororo would never have cared to go to. She was a woman who cared not at all for fripperies, clothing styles, what was in or what wasn't, she simply dressed appropriately in something she liked and was comfortable in, and that was all.

With Kitty gleefully leading the way the two girls soon lost themselves in the strange world of shopping while Harry simply took out a paper on different metal classifications and plunked himself down in the waiting area.

After the two picked up a few dresses to try on and went into the dressing rooms, Ororo asked, "So, have you come to a decision Kitten? About whether or not you wish to remain with the current, setup, shall we say?" They had to speak obliquely of course as they were in public.

Kitten sighed. "I… I was able to work out with the team when we were training the other night, but, but every time I think of it being real I just seize up. I, I'm afraid that if I was asked to go out for real I'd refuse."

"Remember what Harry and I said Kitten," Ororo said, pulling the shorter girl into a one armed hug. "No one will judge you if you choose to no longer play in the real games. You can help your team in other ways. Your mind can be one of the best weapons in your arsenal," she leaned in to whisper in the younger girl's ear, "Even if your name isn't Jean." Kitty giggled and Ororo pulled away, holding up one of the dresses she chose to her body and Kitty nodded firmly in approval, but Ororo's mind was still on the conversation. "Have you asked your parents for some advice? I know you prefer to write to them, but still for something like this calling them would be a good idea."

Kitty bit her lip worriedly. "But, but should I really talk to them about, about that kind of thing, I can't, I mean, would they even understand, could they give me real advice about it?"

"Kitten," Ororo said firmly, turning and dropping the very expensive dress on the ground uncaring as she reached out to grasp the younger girl's shoulders. "Your parents love you, and they agreed to have you join us. Do not ignore them or try to compartmentalize your life like that. Ask them for advice, and I am certain they will take it seriously and help you make a decision you can live with."

Kitty smiled back at her and the two went back to trying on clothing. After a time they came out and made their purchases and the trio went back to the mansion to prepare for their night out.

Harry had a quick shower and then put on his crisis suit and his regular clothing over that, transfiguring it into a suit much like he had in Switzerland, not really caring to buy any new clothing just yet. After that he tried to comb his hair, but after a moment it went back to its normal unmanageable mess so he sighed and went to wait in the main hall for the two girls. They obviously took far longer than he did, but when they came down they looked a lot better too, at least in his opinion.

Ororo was dressed in a slinky black number with silver lines on the edges that went down to her ankles that was cut high up on the side but hugged her in all the right ways, including her chest and shoulder, being tight around the upper arms. She disdained any makeup, but then again she didn't need any, nor had she done anything with her hair, which fell to her shoulders in its normal wave. The sight of her coming down the steps was almost enough to make Harry decide to cancel the night out and simply grab her and go back to bed, but he manfully refrained.

Kitty was dressed in a far more chaste dress of white that had wide straps over otherwise bare shoulders that flared out around her ankles. Her hair still looked a little frizzy but she had obviously done something with it, and he saw a hint of makeup in the form of eye shadow and pink lipstick.

Harry looked at the two of them and whistled aloud. "I think I'm going to have guys dying with jealousy tonight, sitting with the two most beautiful women there."

Ororo chuckled at his compliment while Kitty blushed a little, wishing again that Harry was her age (and y'know not with Ororo).

Charles too added his compliments and Logan looked at Storm and groaned aloud at missed opportunities, a sound that had her chuckling just a little louder. After that the three left, and drove to the restaurant. Harry dropped the two ladies off at the entrance to the truly ritzy restaurant, and then went to park his own car.

Mystique showed up in the body of a drop dead gorgeous blond bombshell, wanting to keep this meeting separate from her Darkholme persona, as well as put a distance between it and her relationship with the Brotherhood. She wore a strapless white and black stripped dress that was tight up top and hugged her hips, coming to a little below her knees. After all, it wasn't often that she had the opportunity to dress up.

She had chosen to bring Lance with him, not trusting Pietro to not pull something or keep his cool. He was dressed in a suit that was a little too big for him, but it still looked good on his spare frame. His hair too was combed for once. All in all he dressed up pretty well, and Kitty looked at him approvingly. Lance too looked at her with interest. Ororo was hot, but also older and with the Potter dude, and Mystique, well the whole shape changing thing sounded great until you got to know her, then it was just freaky.

The four of them looked at one another a little awkwardly, not knowing what to say to one another in a public setting like this or any situation like this. Harry joined them swiftly, and the five of them went into the restaurant. Lance sidled up to Kitty and, after making certain Mystique was concentrating on Harry, whispered, "Um, you look fantastic Kitty, really great."

Kitty grinned a little. "You don't look so bad yourself Lance." The ice broken the two fell into a discussion about school, a safe topic for now, and the two followed the adults to the table.

Ororo and Mystique eyed one another warily, but neither were willing to be the one to start something and made do with talking about their dresses. Well Mystique did, Ororo just let her talk.

Harry set at the head of the long table, waving his hand discretely with a spell that pinpointed anything odd, and unsurprisingly there was a small something on the side of a flower pot in the center of the table. Another slight hand wave hit the flower jar with a muffilatio, which would make it unable to hear anything. As everyone sat down, getting some odd looks from other patrons since they were an odd group, he whispered, "Let's order before we get to talking. I'll use a notice-me-not spell to cover us after the food arrives."

At the word spell Lance's eyes widened then narrowed angrily as the confoundus spell Harry had hit the Brotherhood with after the battle with Juggernaut failed. Kitty however grabbed his arm and made him sit down before he could cause a scene. Once Lance set down though his eyes locked on Harry and he growled out "You asshole what the…"

"You were an enemy at the time kid, and I figured an aimed Confoundus was better than killing you out of hand." Harry's voice was a whisper but it carried to Lance very well, and his emerald eyes were hard over his smile, causing Lance to flinch and look away.

After that the conversation turned to safer things as a waiter came by first with their menus and after that to take their order. The group made small talk in two groups, Lance and Kitty talking at one end and the adults at the other, mostly discussing the economy, and the big news at the moment, that of well-known industrialist Tony Stark's disappearance in the Middle East on a routine marketing trip. Harry had heard of Tony from Reed Richards, the two weren't close, but they knew eachother from Reed having sold a few of his patents to the industrialist, and Harry wondered if that would be enough to get the FF involved in the search for him, but he didn't expect so.

The food soon arrived and when the waiter retreated Harry nodded to Mystique and waved his hand in the air. A brief shimmer moved across the floor underneath them and he nodded. "No one can hear us now, everyone in hearing range think we're talking about schooling, sports and other random things. No one will notice anything different, in fact they'll find our table very hard to notice at all."

Mystique frowned a little, she hadn't seen Dr. Voodoo using spells like that, and certainly the wannabe's she had seen hadn't had something like that. But she nodded. "Very well, do you want me to start my, what did you call it, my shtick?" Harry nodded and Ororo leaned back, willing to listen even though she knew she would never agree with her opinion.

"Well first let me just point at humanity's history with minorities. Homo superior isn't the first minority in the world. Look at what happened to the Christians when that religion first began in ancient Rome. Look at the prosecution gypsies have to deal with in Europe even today, or blacks in America in places, and gays everywhere, let alone the Jews, who have faced prosecution since, well, forever! It is human nature to fear, to hate and to persecute those that are different. I have seen it hundreds of times, have felt it myself dozens of times." Most of those were obviously because she was a mutant, though two of them occurred when she was openly in a relationship with Irene. Some things never changed. "When Hitler started his campaign he used the Jews as a scapegoat, a visible enemy that was just different enough for people to latch onto. How much easier would it be to do the same thing using mutants who are often visibly different who have powers beyond the understanding of normal humans? No, mutant kind must stand together against homo sapien aggression, which will be coming! We must be ready to protect ourselves, and if necessary to conquer them before they can subjugate us!"

By the end of her speech her voice had changed from calm and deliberate to passionate, and she took a moment to collect her self-control before going on. "You can see it already happening now. How many hate groups have already latched onto mutant kind as evil simply because we exist? The Friends of Humanity may be the loudest, but they aren't the only one, and has there been a single nation that has said 'no this is mindless bigotry', no there hasn't. Russia already has pogroms going after mutants, and there have been a few incident in America, especially in the south that were just ugly." She knew that as her leader had gathered another group like the Brotherhood from the south; she knew of the group though that was all, as he believed in compartmentalization, something she agreed with. "No, it will be up to mutants to protect mutants, because no one else will."

For a moment Harry lost himself in a memory from when he was leading the New Marauders, right after Voldemort had slaughtered the last of the Order of the Phoenix that still followed Dumbledore. He had decided to attack Diagon Alley to parade the old man's broken body to show the masses, and Harry had been there on a date (having escaped from Hogwarts). The girl was a Gryffindor named Alicia, not as close to him as the other two of the Flying Foxes, but still a nice girl. When Voldemort appeared everyone was running away, but Harry moved toward him and his forces, determined to do what he could (though not in a head on charge, he was a Ravenclaw after all) and Alicia had tried to stop him, saying he should let the Aurors handle it. When he pointed out that the Aurors had swiftly retreated into the ministry building she said to let the adults handle it. He pointed out that they weren't and that they never had. She asked him why he had to be the one to do it, and he had answered 'because no one else will.' The battle after that, with Harry keeping to the shadows and striking out at them from hiding with lethal spells, had been just enough to keep Voldemort and his followers occupied while the crowd ran for it before he apparated out too. Within a week Alicia was pulled out of Hogwarts and her family moved to France a few days after.

He shook himself and came back to the here and now as Mystique finished up. "That defense must be organized, it must be trained and it must be ready. That is the reason behind the Brotherhood, behind everything. Because the only way to protect a population as diverse and spread as we are is to show the norms that we are too strong for them to mess with. That will mean war, and us being possibly being the one to start it, because if we do and we get a hard enough initial blow off, we might not need another one."

Ororo spoke up then, not able to stand it anymore, "And that is the reason you used your own step-daughter so badly? Why you tried to sour her towards us the moment we tried to recruit her in such a underhanded manner?"

"Yes," Mystique answered simply. "I wanted her to join the Brotherhood and get the training she needed to know when homo-sapiens begin to turn against us, and I knew that as young and naïve as she is that Charles' dream would sound much better than my own side." She looked at Harry. "That worry about training has gone away since you arrived Potter, but I still think she's on the wrong side of things."

Harry nodded thoughtfully, taking a bite out of his lasagna, which was too excellent to ignore. _On the surface, especially with the history she sited to back her position up, it makes a lot of sense. But then she sort of ruins it by her methods and using that that phrase 'conquer'._ Still he had given his word she could try and persuade them, and he wanted to hear from one of the younger set.

"Lance, what do you think about all this?"

Lance chewed at his chicken parmesan, which was very good, wondering how to say this in such a way that he didn't alienate Kitty or get him in trouble with Mystique. Kitty was immensely hot all dressed up, she was cute normally but dressed up she was, wow. Lance was incredibly happy Mystique had chosen to bring him over Pietro. "Um, well, I would say that most of us in the brotherhood know firsthand about discrimination. My family was poor, my dad left us years ago, and everyone looked down on me because of that. You know how that works, a poor kid in a good high school. My powers give me something to say, 'hey I'm special, I don't have to be pushed around', and let me push back. What kids like Fred and Todd, who look strange thanks to their powers, what they go through is pretty bad at school, what'll happen to them when we go out into the rest of the world? Nothing good I bet."

He sighed, looking down at his plate. "If you're talking about war, that I don't really know about. I'm all for protecting ourselves, maybe even taking out any of the hate groups or anyone else who want to threaten us, but going after someone else first, that I don't know about. Maybe a preemptive strike sort of thing if we knew they were going to come after us, but not as part of a whole world war. I just don't see how mutant kind could win something like that, there's not enough of us. Not yet."

Mystique frowned but didn't say anything. She knew with her boss's powers such a war was winnable, but she didn't want to mention him or his powers here. Kitty though asked "But do you want to really, y'know, let your power be the only that defines you? I don't want to be defined just by my powers I want to make a difference with my mind too."

Ororo beamed at the younger girl proudly. Lance looked thoughtful, while Harry nodded too, giving her a thumbs up. "Yes, that's it exactly, you need to be defined by your deeds and your sense of right and wrong, not just by your powers. If your powers are the only thing you define yourself by, then that is a very sad life indeed. Magic is something I can do, it does not define who I am, nor should you let your powers do that to you." Harry turned to Ororo. "Your turn luv."

Storm nodded, finishing up a sip of wine. They had ordered a bottle that Mystique recommended for the table, and allowed the two teens two glasses each. "I understand where you are coming from yet I think you are looking at things through the looking glass of your own experiences. Yes, it is human nature to want to hate that which is different but not every human thinks like that. Not every German believed Nazi propaganda, not every Roman wanted to throw a Christian to the lions."

"No," Mystique retorted, "They just wanted to watch on the sidelines, not caring or worse simply enjoying the show. I fought in that war and I was betrayed, not be the so-called bad guys, but by the good guys. First it was everyone looking at me like I was some kind of exhibition at a circus, then it was my superiors, looking at me as if I would turn on them, then putting me in a position to be killed as often as they could. I saw firsthand that humanity is untrustworthy, ask Logan if you don't believe me. The weapon X program would have used him, Creed and the others until they died if they hadn't broken the indoctrination. Humanity cannot be trusted to deal with us fairly, not as a race and not as individuals."

"Perhaps," Ororo said sedately, "And I am not saying this to belittle your experiences. My own childhood wasn't exactly peaceful, and I could see myself in your position far too easily after how badly I was treated as a random street urchin on the streets of Cairo. Yet even after my power manifested and before I left the city I saw the good in humans as well as the bad. For every Hitler we have a Schindler who works against them, for every Stalin there is a Gandhi, that is a fact of humanity, we are such a diverse species we are impossible to quantify. Nor do I see us a distinct separate species as you seem to because of our power. We are all human, it is just we have certain added abilities, and we can get over this, like humans have learned to ignore our differences for thousands of years. If we work with them, work to police ourselves and to protect ourselves and them from super powered enemies such as the Juggernaut and others we can earn their trust. If we earn their trust groups like the Friends of Humanity and others will become marginalized and looked at like other hate groups. If we work toward the betterment of all not a just few with our powers and our minds we can create a better future for everyone."

Kitty nodded firmly. "That's what I want most, I want to make a difference, I always have, my power doesn't change that, it just gives me another tool to use to do it."

Harry nodded, stapling his fingers on his lap and leaned back looking between the two women, gathering his thoughts before speaking. Out of the side of his eyes he noticed Lance frowning in thought as he sipped at his second glass of wine. _Sales pitches can go both ways after all_. "You are passionate about your position Mystique, but you do not persuade, not me anyway. You might have if you hadn't said you wanted to conquer humanity to make it so humanity couldn't do the same to you. That reminds me too much of the Pureblood Supremacy I fought back in my old dimension."

He then went on to explain the war he fought against Voldemort, the problem with the Ministry, and the beliefs espoused by the extremists, Dumbledore and those in power. All four of them even Ororo listened enthralled at the story, as she had only heard brief blurbs of this story before, never the whole thing at once. All four of them reacted to the story differently. Mystique looked at harry with respect plain on her assumed face. Kitty cried for the friends he lost and that a boy her own age had to take a stand like that. Lance looked at him with shock and respect, wondering inside if he and his fellows were being set up as the Purebloods or the New Marauders.

As he finished his eyes nailed Mystique to her chair, hard, and unyielding, full of passion, the very air almost throbbing with his power. "What you talk about is the same general idea, the the privileged few ruling over the many, chosen not be election or money or anything but simple random genetics. And I will fight that with every spell, every thought, word and deed that I can, that is a promise. Do you understand?" Mystique nodded, not scared exactly, but very worried about what this wizard could do if he wanted to not just to her but to the cause she followed. "If on the other hand mutants are persecuted, I will help them. I don't care where, or when, or about borders or laws, I will help them with all I can however I need to with as much force as I have to. That too is a promise." He leaned back, calming down and the other people around the breathed easier with the pressure lifted. Ororo was looking at him with desire in her eyes, loving this passionate, commanding side of him, and she promised herself sometime that night for the two of them.

Mystique saw his charisma and his power and shook her head. "No wonder there is a new path to the future." She muttered. She wasn't certain though if she is willing to work with him just yet, after all his powers came from his magic not his mutation. More her leader was a certain bet, with his plans for the future already set and a worldwide network of agents and followers while Harry was alone and hadn't shared any certain plans with her.

Harry looked at Ororo wondering how she took his speech, and his eyes widened at the look in her eyes, and he looked rapidly away to keep from losing his cool, then his eyes narrowed as what Mystique muttered registered. "Wait, what? What do you mean a third path to the future?"

Mystique frowned realizing she had spoken aloud and wondering what to say. In the end she decided to share a bit of the truth. "I have a friend whose mutant power can see into the future, not very far" she lied, "but my friend can see paths into the future."

Harry's breathing eased back to normal as no prophecy was mentioned, and then his eyes narrowed. "This person is a real proven seer? How is she defended? Good god, do you have nay idea how powerful an asset a seer could be in the wrong hands!"

Mystique's lips twitched and her face hardened into grim lines, an unusual look on her assumed face. "Oh yes, we've seen several people over the years that would misuse her power. I killed them all." She said it blandly but her eyes were hard as she stared at Harry. Indeed, she made certain that only her leader out of all their organization knew her powers, and even he didn't know their full extent, how specific they could be or how far. No one knew that but her, and Irene was defended by that anonymity just as much as by Mystique's guile and her own power.

Harry relaxed further. "I'd offer to give you some magical defenses, but I doubt you'd trust me enough to take them." Mystique laughed and nodded agreement so Harry just shrugged. "Anyway, I won't go out of my way to fight you but I will stop you if you use your powers to attack mundanes. The school is off limits and you keep the fighting in areas without any bystanders if you want me to keep to that neutrality. And that will go for the X-men I'll come down on them if they start anything too." Ororo shrugged, knowing that the students and Charles would follow that idea easily enough. "In return, I'll give your team leader some pointers on leadership and team tactics, as well as a few pages worth of ideas of how to use their powers from what I saw when we fought Juggernaut."

Mystique frowned, but since she didn't actually want the Brotherhood to pick random fights with the X-men, which was one thing she and Charles agreed on, keeping a low profile was necessary for mutant kind right now, she saw no reason not to agree. "Alright, I can agree to that. I'll make my group tow the line if you make good with your end."

Harry nodded firmly. "Done, now Lance, you're the team leader right?" He had seen the others in action after all and only Pietro seemed to have a good head on his shoulders, and he was far too egotistical to be in charge of anything. Frankly from what little he had seen he reminded him of Draco Malfoy a little too much.

Lance nodded in reply, pleased Harry had picked that out, and Harry rattled off a few book names Lance should look into and then the talk turned to other things and Harry removed the notice me not spell so the waiter could approach and they could order some dessert.

During the rest of the meal the adults made small talk and shared a few stories about mishaps, with Harry dominating the discussion with stories about his pranks. Lance and Kitty flirted a bit, causing the trio of adults to smirk a little to each other. Thus the evening ended on a high note for all of them, even though Mystique hadn't persuaded Harry to join her side.

As they were leaving, Lance pulled Kitty to a stop a little bit of a blush on his face. "Um, look, I had a lot of fun, I, um I was wondering if you might want to have a night out on our own sometime?"

Kitty looked at him, giggling a little and blushing slightly. "Sure, I'd like that a lot, just, um just make it pizza or something simple okay, I saw the bill for this place and it was scary."

Lance nodded firmly. "Deal."

Mystique paused on the walk to the parking lot, looking over at Ororo. It was obvious to the weather goddess that the shapeshifter wanted to say something, and she stopped as well, looking at her. After a moment of wrestling with herself Mystique spoke. "My, my daughter Rogue, please, I, tell her I still care about her? Look out for her please. I doubt she wants anything to do with me anymore, but I still want her to know I care. I'm not the best at showing that, but it's still true."

Ororo nodded, inwardly wondering how Mystique could have ever thought that manipulating Rouge as she had was a good way to show she cared, but the woman in her wouldn't let her say it. "I will." She looked at the other woman and decided to throw her a bone. "If you truly care for her, Rogue may come around eventually, and eventually you tow can reconcile. These things tend to pass, and the fact that you're on opposing positions on the future of mutant kind will only get in the way if you let it." Mystique frowned, looking away with sadness plain on her assumed face before leaving without another word. With that the night ended, the two groups going their way.

* * *

In the back of the restaurant a man with close cropped dirty blond hair cursed inventively. Thanks to bugging the Xavier mansion's phone they had found out about this little shindig, though who the blond woman was they didn't know. It was pretty clear she had something to do with the so-called Brotherhood of Mutants, but what was a mystery, just like the identity of their leader. That secret was one Fury would cheerfully murder for, the known objectives of the brotherhood was a threat to national, indeed international security.

If only he had been able to overhear what they talked about, but the mini-microphone he had placed on that table (it had been easy to keep that table clear and shunt the group to it, basic spycraft 101 that) but it had failed right before the group sat down. Maybe one of them had some kind of power that did stuff like that to electronics? He didn't know. What Agent Barton did know was that his boss was not going to be happy.

* * *

Saturday morning started out a very bizarre day for many of those at the mansion. To start off everyone's normal morning routine was interrupted by a scream from Rogue's room then a loud crash. Everyone (Save Ororo who Harry told to wait and get dressed before joining the rush) congregated in her room, shocked to see she had lashed out in her sleep and destroyed the outer wall which her bed rested alongside. She was now sitting up with Kitty and Jean carefully giving her hugs on either side of her laying their arms along her pajama clad shoulders. "It was just ah nightmare," Rogue muttered, "but it was so vivid, like ah was really there."

"what was it about?" Scott asked, patting her knee, which was under the blanket.

"I, I was a woman, and I was carrying ah baby, runnin' away from some castle, but soon some wolves started tah chase me through the woods. They somehow got ahead of me and pinned me on a rope bridge over a river between them. They attacked, I tried tah hold 'em off, but I got bitten on my arm and forced tah drop the baby down into the river. The dream ends there."

"Was there anything unusual about the scene other than how vivid it was?" Charles asked, wheeling himself towards the bed, his face concerned yet inquisitive.

Rogue thought for a minute then nodded. "Ah couldn't make out any of mah own features, but the baby, the baby had blue fur!" She looked up sharply at Kurt whose eyes widened. "Ah think it was Kurt!"

"Me? But who could have been carrying me vhile running away from a castle? Especially vhen I vas a baby, from what they said the Roma found me about that time. I wonder vhat relation I had to this woman."

"Hmmm," said Charles. "Perhaps later today we should look into this further, it might be possible if I probe your mind we can see more detail." Rogue nodded agreement, and Kurt looked on hopefully, wanting to know more of his birth family.

"Well then, I think I'll go and start breakfast, waffles I think." Harry said with some finality, leaving his hand and using a reparo spell on the wall.

Swiftly the wall was back to normal and Rogue smirked a little. "You're an awfully useful man tah have around Mr. Potter."

Ororo smirked. "Indeed, in so many ways." Harry smirked back at her while the guys rolled their eyes (except for Evan who frowned) and the girls giggled a little. None of the kids noticed Harry stare hard at Charles, this being the last day of his ultimatum to the older man. Charles sighed a little then nodded and mouthed the word later. Harry walked off with Ororo, satisfied for now.

After breakfast the kids were handed over to Logan for endurance training, then had free time until a lesson with Ororo for the girls that evening and with Logan for the boys. Harry would take them on in his team challenges all day Sunday. He wanted to start on his runic flying array/tattoo today.

After lunch however Jean's free time was interrupted by Charles asking him into his office. Wondering what this was about, and wondering why her instincts told her it was going to be about something important, she knocked and when told to entered the third story office. "You wanted to see me sir?"

Charles sighed, wheeling his way around his desk to take up position close by one of the chairs facing it. "Yes Jean, please sit down." Jean sat down, now certain this was going to be something either important, unpleasant or both. "I, I have a bit of a confession to make. Do you remember when I first found you?"

"Yes sir," Jean said slowly, "It was about two weeks after my powers woke up in me." That had been caused by the traumatic effect of seeing her best friend as a child die, run over by a car after just playing with her in her backyard. "You stopped by every now and then until my parents allowed me to move in here two years ago." In actuality they had been just as worried about how it would look if they let their young pre-teen daughter move into a full time boarding school as they had been about her wellbeing, perhaps more so. After all, there was a reason they never bothered to initiate contact with her now that she was away, anything outside the norm was something they couldn't really handle.

"I told you at the time that it was your own power that alerted me to your presence, but that was not the whole truth. I felt something else as well, a powerful alien entity that had, when I investigated, taken up residence in your mind." Jean froze in shock at that and he went on, "When I investigated I found that the entity had bonded with your mind and I could not force it out no matter what I tried. I then made the decision to seal it there, locking it way from the rest of your mind, so that it could not influence you in any way."

Jean shook off her shock and began to get angry. "I, I've got an alien entity in my mind, you've known about this for years and you never told me!?"

"Jean please calm down, I kept it a secret because I wanted to let your mind fully mature before learning or your unwanted guest. I also wanted you to have a normal childhood, Mutant children have a hard enough time having a normal childhood without knowing there is something else odd about them." Charles said placatingly, his hands making calming motions.

Jean stood up angrily beginning to pace around the room, trying to keep control but her power began to spark off her, picking up random items around the room and toss them too and for aimlessly. "Oh that's just great, never mind the fact that I'm a fucking telepath and my mind should be sacrosanct! Why the hell did you think it was good idea to still keep it from me when I began to mature? It wasn't your damn call to keep something like this from me, this is my head we're talking about here! Mental blocks, foreign mental blocks in my head, no matter the reason that is just, wrong, just I can't tell you how this makes me feel! Good god professor, this is why I've been having problems with occlumency isn't it, this thing inside my head is interfering somehow!"

She froze for a moment as she thought of the tension between Harry and Charles, which had started right after she showed his mental projection around her mind…. "Potter found out didn't he? He wanted you to tell me, that's what the countdown and the tension between you was about, wasn't it?" Charles sighed but nodded and Jean's eyes narrowed angrily. "So if he hadn't been pressuring you, would you be telling me about this entity in my head even now?" Xavier looked away, not willing to meet her accusing gaze. "I see. If you'll excuse me professor, I think I'm going to go now. We **will** be talking again later, after I've calmed down." Charles nodded sadly, wondering how badly this had hurt Jean's trust in him, and where they would go from here.

Jean knew where she wanted to go, and stormed off to find the other target of her ire.

* * *

Harry had placed a mufilatio around his workroom so he wouldn't be bothered as he tattooed the runic array that would let him fly onto his back. When he was done it would be a circle of runes around the middle of his back, then he would cover it up by tattooing a design around it to look like a sun or something, he wasn't sure what just yet. He had solved the problem of not letting foreign magic impact the process by using two carefully tilted full length mirrors, one at an angle in front of in front of his face as he laid face down on a table taken from the medical wing, and the other directly above him. This way he was able to see what was going on while he used his magic to direct the half iron (which did not conduct magic) half regular metal pliers that held the crystal (an unused one) he was using to carve the design.

It was lucky he had when Jean barged into his room without knocking for a second time. "You knew, and you didn't tell me!"

When she saw he was lying down half naked and apparently very busy with something that looked very tricky she paused, tapping her toes angrily on the ground.

About ten minutes later, time which did nothing to appease her anger, Harry finished the rune he was working on and allowed the leviosa spell to slowly fade, reaching out to catch the pliers as they fell gently to the ground. He stood up from the bed, looking at her quizzically as he negated the **Mufilatio** spell. "You really need to work on knocking don't you Red?"

Red flushed a little at the sight of Harry's chiseled abs and his oh so interesting scars then shook it off. "Never mind that, you knew about this, this thing in my head, and you never told me about it, why!?"

Harry sighed a little happily. "So baldy really did get up his courage to tell you, huh, that surprises me, in a good way admittedly. I'm not used to leaders who admit their mistakes. And if I had mentioned it when I first saw it, would you have believed me?"

Jena frowned a little. It was true she hadn't known Harry that well at that point, but… "I would have at least brought it up with the professor if you had told me. Gah, the idea I have some foreign thing in my head is just… brrr. Still, I guess I can see why you didn't want to be the one to tell me. But that and the idea of someone else's mental blocks in my head, that is just wrong. It feels almost like, well almost like a rape, something precious has been defiled, my mind has been changed without me agreeing to it or even knowing about it!" She stood there hyperventilating for a moment and Harry simply waited, letting her recover from her outburst. "Have you, have you run into anything like this before?"

Harry frowned heavily but then nodded. "I've run into two such. One was on my godfather, we were never certain what the reason was, but the effect was to make him extremely impulsive, almost to the point of being suicidal." Dumbledore had put a mental block on Sirius at some point well before he was sent to Azkaban to enforce loyalty. Unfortunately for the meddling old coot, Harry's mother and father had insisted Sirius take the old version of the godfather oath, which demanded the man do all he could to protect Harry with all of his magic, consciously or unconsciously, meaning the man's own magic would work to protect Harry even if the rest of him didn't. When the block and the oath came into conflict, he became incredibly impulsive and almost manic whenever he knew Harry was in trouble, his own magic pushing him to do something, anything even if it went against his trust of Dumbledore, hence why he finally broke out of Azkaban when he saw Peter with Weasley. When Harry began to show Sirius how to use occlumency the block was easy to find when the man organized his mind and they broke it then. The other block Harry had seen was on Narcissa Black, and was part of the marital agreement between the two families, and it disappeared when Sirius, as head of the Blacks, annulled the marriage. After that she willingly helped them lead her former husband and son into an ambush. One had been a rapist and abuser, the other nearly his carbon copy, and she had shed no tears for either. Harry had often wondered why Dumbledore had never tried to place a block on him, and had never found a satisfactory answer. He supposed that such a step was a dangerous one, and by the time Dumbledore realized he needed it on Harry he had already learned to defend his mind with his imagined invisibility cloak.

"So they can have an impact on the person well beyond what was intended?" Jean asked, biting her lip worriedly.

"Oh yes," Harry said grimly, comparing Sirius before and after the block was removed. Before Sirius was almost childish, wild and impulsive and far too trusting of Dumbledore in every way except about how to help Harry. Afterward he resembled the dangerous and very competent Auror he had been before being sent to Azkaban though admittedly more manic, and his love of pranks didn't change. "I honestly can't tell you if Charles' block is more efficient or has a limited effect, but I am a little worried about it, hence why I wanted you to know about this alien entity in your head and the blocks both."

"Could you maybe try and get rid of this thing in my head? Without it there the blocks can be removed."

Harry looked at her hopeful face and sighed. "I don't know. Charles said it's a foreign entity, but I'll be honest, I never saw any indication of that. I just saw it as another part of your mind. Why that is I don't know, but if it is a foreign entity, maybe we should try to talk to it. After all, even if it couldn't communicate when Charles first found it, it has been in your mind for years and it might have picked up human speech in that time."

Jean frowned, the idea of talking to something inside her own head was a really odd idea, but she sighed. "Can we do it now please?" She asked plaintively, and Harry looked at her again, looking past her anger about being lied to and saw her fear this time.

Jean was desperately afraid of whatever this was in her head, and with good reason. _If I had something in my brain that wasn't me I'd be terrified too._ Sure, let me put on a shirt and we can start." Jena nodded, looking away at this reminder that Harry was shirtless.

A moment later Harry came back and conjured two comfy chairs for the two of them. They sat down, and after a moment Harry nodded, indicating he had pulled back a corner of his invisibility cloak. Jean came into his mind and, like last time, transported his mental projection into her mind, bypassing the belsham-trees which caused Harry to chuckle and wonder what Luna would have thought of them while Jean merely smiled, her worry about the rest of her mind not letting her take pleasure in her defenses.

Jean looked around her barely organized mind, frowning in concentration, then shook her head. "Even knowing something is there I can't see them, Charles hid them too well."

Harry nodded, then grasped her hand and pushed it at the place where a locked down book was held on its pedestal. She resisted at first, then as their joined hands came into contact with it gasped as suddenly she could see the chained book and the fissure below it on the mental ground of her mind. She looked around and saw two other books set along the fissure, and the large staples of some kind that were trying to keep the fissure closed. "This, was all in my mind and I never knew?"

Harry shrugged. "I guess so, though the books might have grown out of the original block, the metal bar thingies. Whatever the thing it's supposed to keep under control is inside that fissure."

"According to those occlumency books you gave me, the further down you go into your mind the more emotions and elemental thoughts you'll find." Jean frowned, now really wondering what was down there.

"That's the way it normally works until you force your own organization on your mind, but regardless, we'll need to go down and find this entity, whatever it is."

Jean nodded and looked at the hole, then with a deep breath reached out and forced the block apart, just enough to let them down into it. A flash of heat and flame shot out, and for a moment they both could feel something stirring below them, but then it settled down, as if waiting for them to make the first move. The two looked at one another then Harry smirked and bowed grandly. "Allow me to go first milady, I shall brave the dragon's cave first, taking all the danger onto myself before I let thee come to harm."

Jean shook her head, but there was a smile on her face as she did. "Nay good sir, we will face this danger side by side for I cannot send someone else to face this danger without me."

Harry, still smirking held out his hand as if asking for a dance at a fancy ball, and Jean looped her own arm with his and together they stepped forward over the fissure, and jumped down into the fire.

They fell for a few seconds through the fire which burned, but did not injure. A moment later they touched down, seemingly floating above a pool of fire which spread endlessly in every direction that looked like the surface of the sun, roiling and pulsing with heat and fire and power. "Hmm, this is not what I was expecting."

Jean looked at him askance and stepped away, looking around. "You were actually expecting something in particular?"

"No not really."

Suddenly a voice reverberated around them, shocking in time, shocking in its power. **+You who are my container, my human half, you have come at last. You have come, accompanied be a he who also carries my power+.**

Harry and Jean watched in awe as a shape emerged from the flames in front of them. the shape was first an amorphous blob of fire but soon seemed to settle on two shapes, changing back and forth between them constantly. One was that of a woman, her body a replica of Jean's except made of fire, and the other was that of a majestic bird.

"A phoenix," Harry breathed in surprise. "What in the world is a phoenix doing inside someone's mind?" More, this phoenix was giving him an impression of such power he felt dwarfed by it, not overwhelmed, just as if they inhabited two different planes of existence. Harry had never gotten a feeling like that with Fawkes, power yes, and the sense of a powerful immortal mind in those eyes, but not this powerful, this ancient and all-knowing. He groaned a little as he remembered what he said to that guy in the death's mask and conjured a wall momentarily to slam his head against it a few times.

"I, I have no idea. What did it mean when it said you carry also carry its power?" Jean asked, looking a little wild-eyed at the entity and then to Harry and back, not really wanting to know why he was hitting his head against a wall that hadn't been there a moment ago.

Harry stopped what he was doing and closed his eyes concentrating, and his wand, which Death had infused into his very being, appeared in his hand. The piece of Yggdrasil surrounded and encased what Death had called a shard of the M'kraan crystal, and inside that was a piece of flame, an eternal fire that burned without any fuel, forever and eternal. "This is what she meant I think, but what she really is I have no idea. Nor why she is in your mind, care to enlighten us on those points milady?" Harry refused to be awed, it wasn't the first time he had faced something that could crush him like an ant, and he'd be damned if he backed down.

**+A Defender should have the tools to do so+**, the being stated, in the shape of a bird at the moment, its voice strangely amused. **+Though you can only wield it because you met an avatar of my power in your home dimension. And I am here because I found one who was willing to give her all to defend life, that which I serve and create, one who had tried to give her all to bring back a friend from the endless+. **

Harry shrugged off the part about tools, he knew what he was after all. The second part though, that interested him quite a lot. "Of course, fire, the power of rebirth and renewal, life and destruction in one."

Jean nodded, understanding suddenly dawning and she stepped forward, moving closer to the being until they stood a bare arms length from one another. "Those dreams I had the week after Annie died, the ones before Charles showed up, they weren't really dreams were they?"

The phoenix nodded, now in the shape of its fire based clone of Jean. **+You had telepathically linked your mind to the mind of your friend in an attempt to keep her soul from moving to the afterlife. In doing so, your mind was being dragged to Death's realm, something I could not allow after seeing how hard you fought to sustain the life of your friend. I joined my power to your mind and broke that connection, yet in so doing I forged a connection with you. The meddling of the bald fool occurred before I could remove that connection, and his blocks cut off this portion of my power from the whole+.**

"So the you in front of us, it's only a part of the whole?" Harry asked, a little freaked by that idea. The being in front of him was powerful as all hell, but he felt he could still fight it if he had to. Probably wouldn't win, but he could fight it. If it was part of another even vaster entity though, that was terrifying.

**+Is the flame in your soul-wand different in appearance than the flames around us? I am phoenix, I am immutable, all parts connected and representative of the whole+**, the being said haughtily, not breaking eye contact with Jean. **+I was old when this dimension was created, I will be here when it returns to the flame. That is my charge, destroyer and renewer+.**

"yet this portion is still trapped in me," Jean murmured. "You couldn't escape without hurting me?"

**+I would not kill you in such a fashion, regardless of the fool's idiocy it was through no fault of yours+**. The being paused then looking away before looking back at Jean. **+Then too I became interested in actually living rather than simply being+.**

"So what will happen when we remove Charles' mental blocks?" Harry asked, looking from the redhead to her fiery counterpart.

**+This aspect of my whole will merge with the container+** the phoenix said simply, still seemingly staring at Jean, who was staring back.

"You get something out of this though, it's not just because of what I tried to do." Jean said. "My emotions, they fascinate you?" She said it like it was a question, but somehow she knew that was it.

**+Yes,+** said the being, not even trying to hide it. **+I have lived for a passage of time that you cannot comprehend, yet emotions and feelings are utterly new to me. I wish to feel more, but I know that I cannot afford to actually feel them, else I would be unable to pursue my duty. Thus this portion of my flame will be separated from the whole, separate yet the same. I will learn of these feelings as if I were seeing them through that human invention called a TV. They will not influence me or my sacred charge, yet I will still learn of them+.**

"And I get my whole mind back," Jean said, realizing suddenly what she had been missing for years. "My passion, my imagination, my anger. They were all somehow chained down with you by the mental blocks Charles put on us." _Those and much of my other emotions,_ she thought suddenly. That was why she never could sustain a single emotion for very long, why she came off as cool and distant so often. Duncan had often complained about it both to her face and behind her back, and even the other X-men had always thought she was sort of standoffish. Rogue had even called her a spoiled princess because of her attitude (though admittedly also because of Scott's favoritism, something Jean could not do anything about). That had faded lately, but that was because her harsher, more powerful emotions had begun to leak out of their 'books' into the rest of her mind.

Harry nodded thoughtfully, though inside he was questioning whether or not this was a good idea. "So will Red here" they both turned and glared at him but he merely smirked back un-phased, "Will Red here have a connection with you other than showing you her emotions like your very own soap opera."

The being actually wrinkled its nose somehow in distaste at that idea. ** +I hope it will not be a soap opera, I would prefer some stability in certain areas+. ** For some reason Harry knew that was directed at him somehow, but for the life of him he couldn't figure out what the being meant, though from her rather startled look Jean seemed to understand. **+In answer to your question, Jean will become an avatar of my power, her own abilities enhanced and empowered beyond what she could achieve on her own. It will be a gradual process, the power she wields from me will grow as her control does. I will not be able to influence her mind or emotions in any way that is why this aspect will be cut off from the whole, with just enough of a connection for me to view her emotions, not effect them+.**

Jean nodded in agreement to the idea of merging with this entity but Harry frowned a little, realizing that Jean would also need to relearn how to control her emotions if the mental blocks had blocked out so much of them. _What is it with the women in this dimension being cut off from their emotions? There's Emma because of her family, Ororo because of her connection to weather, and now Jean thanks to Charles' meddling and Ms Flame here. And I still don't know if this is a good idea, but whatever, it's better than anything else, at least this way Jean's mind will be her own, and whatever happens in the future that's worth it right now._ "Alright, how do we do this?"

**+You need do nothing Defender+** the being said warmly, now back in the shape of a bird. **+It is for Jean and I to do this+**.

Jean nodded and stepped forward, now within a foot of the entity. "Let's do this!" She raised her arms above her hand and to the side, and with a trill of joy the bird dived into her chest and disappearing into her astral projection. All around them the flames pulsed, becoming hotter, the light they gave off brighter, becoming almost blinding, then beginning to funnel into her from all directions, encasing her in fire that slowly sank into her skin to join the original shape the phoenix had taken to speak to them. Harry watched in awe for a few moments, than with a jolt found himself back in his own body in the physical realm.

He shook his head then looked across at Jean where she was sitting in her chair. She was glowing with power, her body lifting off the chair he had conjured for her to hover in the air, her eyes glowing with phoenix fire. Harry leaped up reaching forward to grasp her hands and hold her in place as flames began to spiral around the room, activating his protective warding array.

The array began to flicker wildly under the power of this assault, and he let go with one of his hands and reached for the wall slapping his hand onto the array there and pushing as much of his magical power as he could into it. "Come on Red, get it together, control this we really don't want you two to merge only to find you've blown up the mansion," he grimaced as the wards flickered and he pumped in even more energy into them, "Or, you know the state of New York or this continent."

Hammering on the door warned him that others in the mansion had sensed this build up, but Harry paid them no mind, all his attention on the beautiful utterly magnificent young woman who was trying to merge with an entity whose power was literally incomprehensible in an effort to finally call her mind her own. "Come on Jean, work through it, get it together!"

Metal claws slashed into the door frame, and a moment later the other X-men rushed in only to pause in shock at what was going on. Harry ignored them keeping all his attention on the girl whose arm he was gripping so tightly, knowing somehow that if he let go, the being known as Jean would be gone, the body would remain, but the soul inside it would no longer be hers, not because of any malice or evil intent, but because of the phoenix just not understanding what its power could do to her. "Come on Jean, you can do this!"

Ororo looked on in shock for a moment then strode forward, wincing a little as the aura of flame around Jean burned her a little, but she ignored it, grasping her young friend's hand firmly. "Yes Jean, whatever this is you cannot allow it to beat you!"

Jean clung to those hands like a lifeline as her very soul was bathed in a vast power unlike anything that any mortal had ever felt before. Then as more of the X-men piled in, adding their hands to Ororo's and Harry's, the power began to recede as the phoenix retreated, the aspect stuck within her mind merging with her and finally disappearing entirely. The aura around her disappeared and she fell back onto her chair, her eyes closed, but her breathing deep and regular.

Harry took his hand away from the wall, absently noticing how badly damaged the warding array was, he would have to redo the entire array later, but the specialized ward around the property seemed to have held, which was a blessing. Now though he concentrated on something more important. He gestured everyone else back and they gave way reluctantly to allow him to however over Jean in her chair. "Red, you okay in there? How are you feeling?"

Jean opened her jade eyes to gaze up into his emerald ones, then over to Ororo's worried face and around at her friends, smiling happily. "Whole." She yawned, then shook her head very slowly from side to side. "Tired, very tired."

"Well that at least is to be expected," Harry laughed a little, then leaned in and lifted her into his arms easily. "Bed I think for you."

Charles coughed a little and the two green eyed individuals looked at him, one frowning unhappily the other simply with a raised eyebrow. "May I inquire as to what happened in here? If jean is injured in some way we should take her down to the medical wing."

"I'm not injured sir, just exhausted. The problem you finally got around to revealing to me is gone now." She glared a little at him and he frowned and looked away sadly. The other X-men wondered what that was about but didn't really care at the moment, simply crowding in as Harry made his way to the door, Scott and the others adding their own voices of concern and worry. Ororo didn't bother with words, simply reaching forward and grasping her younger friend's hand, allowing her to feel her concern, worry and affection before reaching up and pushing some of her red locks out of her face.

Jean smiled brightly at all their concern simply saying she would be fine after some rest and tell them what happened later. Then she frowned up at Harry. "I can walk you know Potter."

"Can you?" Harry asked impishly letting her down enough to set her legs on the ground and she put her arms around his neck in surprise as her legs nearly gave way under her.

"Okay so maybe I can't walk right now." Harry smirked a little and she smacked his chest, but he merely chuckled and picked her up again, not noticing or caring about the frown that appeared on Scott's face during this little bit of interaction.

"I think you should let Harry carry you to your room Jean," Ororo said as the other X-men moved out of the way. "We don't want you hurting yourself in an attempt to tough your way through your exhaustion."

Jean frowned but resigned herself to being carried, not like it was exactly a hardship to be held against Harry's ripped chest. She flushed just a bit at that thought, but didn't pull away and soon found herself sitting on her bed. At that point Ororo shooed out all the men and she and Kitty went to work changing her for bed despite her protests that she could dress herself. The look of appreciation on Ororo's face as she looked at Jean's body while changing her shirt for a pajama top did more for Jean's ego than any amount of envy or lust from the cheerleaders or footballers though and she soon found herself tucked into bed like a little girl. The last thing she felt was Ororo caressing her check gently, then she was out like a light.

Outside Harry fielded a few questions, giving out just enough information for them all to stop questioning him, then changed the subject and ordered the rest of the X-men to report for a training session.

* * *

Jean remained asleep for the rest of the day and well into Sunday, though the others checked in on her occasionally to see how she was doing. Harry however received a surprise on Sunday.

* * *

Charles had felt a presence he hadn't felt for many years approaching the mansion and had wheeled himself down to answer the door and see his friend again. As the tall, distinguished gentlemen ran the doorbell (having noticed and ignored both the normal and magical defenses around the house) the door opened and Charles sat in his wheelchair looking up at him with a smile. "Steven, how are you doing my friend? I haven't seen you in years."

Steven strange looked down at his friend, frowning ever so slightly at the man's still crippled legs, a sign of not one but two of his life's failures. Charles had taken that injury while fighting a alien that called itself Lucifer, a name that had mystical/religious connotations and thus had been brought to Strange's attention. He arrived too late, with Lucifer beaten and retreating from the telepath only after crippling his legs. With the aid of a young mutant named Sage hwo had responded to Charles' psychic cry for aid he got Charles to a hospital in time to save his life but not in enough time to save his legs, the tendons in them having died by the time he got there, beyond even Steven's original medical skills. "It is good to see you as well Charles, but I am afraid I am not here to just see you. I believe you have a Harry Potter living here?"

End chapter

* * *

I am not totally happy with the Phoenix section, but I needed to have it happen soon, or else I couldn't move the story forward. I hope I pulled it off and the rest of the chapter in such a way that everyone enjoyed it. Next chapter will be a bit of a down time, as Harry deals with Kurt and Mystiques connection and some other things. then the next chapter will have the Cauldron episode plot, and Harry meets someone who can push him even with all his abilities. I've already written a portion of that fight, and I hope to get it right by the time I post that chapter.

As always read and review


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